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cmaats 's review for:
The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
by Jonathan Gottschall
There are two stars to give: one for the insightful descriptions of some of the experiments mentioned in the book, for example regarding left and right brain functions, the other for his discussion of the relation between stories in the virtual world and the real one towards the end of the book. Especially the escapist temptations of these virtual worlds to people caught in bleak meaningless lives in the real one.
Why the writer takes half the book to search for the meaning of stories only to come to a conclusion that is neither complete nor original is difficult for me to understand. I do have to mention my familiarity with the works of Joseph Campbell and C.J. Jung, so I've read about the 4 functions of myth. I've also read a bit on dream interpretation and the way mr. Gottschall discards Freud's work on the subject in a by-sentence, without any mention of Jung's work leaves me to conclude the writer either did not do any real research or deliberately ignored it because it wouldn't leave him with anything novel to conclude. (By the way he concludes the chapter by interpreting his own dream in much the same way as Jung would have..he might want to look into it..)
My other problem is the tendency of the writer to quote some supposed expert on a subject, then state his own opinion without any real logical argument or deduction to back up his point of view.
It's all informative enough to read and the pace and narration are decent, but it all seems very incomplete and superficial.
Why the writer takes half the book to search for the meaning of stories only to come to a conclusion that is neither complete nor original is difficult for me to understand. I do have to mention my familiarity with the works of Joseph Campbell and C.J. Jung, so I've read about the 4 functions of myth. I've also read a bit on dream interpretation and the way mr. Gottschall discards Freud's work on the subject in a by-sentence, without any mention of Jung's work leaves me to conclude the writer either did not do any real research or deliberately ignored it because it wouldn't leave him with anything novel to conclude. (By the way he concludes the chapter by interpreting his own dream in much the same way as Jung would have..he might want to look into it..)
My other problem is the tendency of the writer to quote some supposed expert on a subject, then state his own opinion without any real logical argument or deduction to back up his point of view.
It's all informative enough to read and the pace and narration are decent, but it all seems very incomplete and superficial.