The Storytelling Animal Chapter 3

In the reading Gottshall uses the image of a flight simulator. He offers the theory that stories could be social simulators. We need them, so we can prepare ourselves for awkward or difficult situations before we have to face these situations. Gottschall writes, “...problem structure reveals a major function in storytelling. It suggests that the human mind was made for story, so that it could be shaped by story.” I find some truth in these ideas in my own life. I watch movies and T.V. shows quite often and, inevitably, they affect the way I think. Being in college, I keep comparing my life to the T.V. show, Felicity. It’s a fun show with good content and interesting characters. It is not completely realistic to the college experience, yet it still comes to mind in certain situations. I will compare people to characters and experiences to episodes. This happens with other shows and movies, too. Some of these forms of story are so ingrained into the way we think that we may not notice the effect they have on us.

Gottshall also cites Steven Pinker’s idea that movies serve life in the way a book of chess moves serves a chess player. Gottshall disagrees with this claim. He argues that we use the implicit memory and not the explicit memory in regards to movies. This rings true. As I stated above, some stories are so ingrained into the way we think, that we may not even remember watching or reading them, but they still affect us. People do not remember the plot of every children’s show they watched when they were younger, but they still know that sharing is caring. Many people forget the movies they watch, but chances are, there is some undetectable change in their brain as a result of those films.

I found Gottshall’s discussion of mirror neurons interesting. I can often feel my face moving while I watch a film to connect with the feelings of a character. I find that if an awkward scene is happening in a film, I get a fake smile on my face. I am willing the character on-screen to stop making a dopey face and move on in the conversation. Then, I realize that I am making an awkward fake smile in front of the T.V. and feel a bit silly about it, but now I know there is some science that may describe this phenomenon. I am also heavily impacted by sadness in a film of book, but I find that, if a character dies, it is not their death that I react to, but the reaction of their friends and family. When I see a character I love die, the tears start to well up, but the true crying comes when I see their best friend pounding against a wall and running out of the hospital overcome with grief and anger. This, too, would support the mirror neuron idea.