Gottschall (2012) The Future of Stories

Gottschall (2012)The Future of Story

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Research Writing jlesley@icu.ac.jp

Humans are Creatures of Neverland

Neverland, the magical island in Peter Pan, is a place that symbolizes childhood, fantasy, and endless possibilities - a place that Gottschall says is part of our nature as storytelling animals...

For American author David Shields, our cultural ADHD (short attention spans), decreased interest in theatre and poetry, and fewer students studying literature at university are evidence that fiction is slowly dying...

The Death of Fiction?

Novels

But Gottschall disagrees with Shields and says novels like Harry Potter and Twilight - two very successful book and film series - are examples that show strong interest in fiction.

Gottschall also believes that even if novels disappear in the future, stories will adapt and evolve into new platforms...

Poems

To highlight the point about story evolving, Gottschall claims that modern pop stars, singers, and musicians are the poets of our modern era...

Video Games

Novelist and critic Tom Bissell argues that video games are helping to push storytelling boundaries by combining gaming with the power of musical, visual, and narrative art...

Reality TV

Gottschall says that the ways we experience TV are changing, but TV is ultimately still a story-delivery technology. He also claims that reality TV is much more fiction than it is nonfiction...

Live Action Role Playing Games (LARP)

Gottshall views LARP as less of a game and more of a live theatre show without a script for the actors and without an audience.

Interactive Fiction & MMORPGs (Mor-Pegs)

Sandbox Games

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMRPGs)

/ˈɛksədəs/ (noun) a mass departure of people

Exodus -

Economist Edward Castronova argues that we are increasingly moving from the real world into the virtual world....

The Storytelling Animal

You made it to the end!

Extras 1

If you want to hear more from Gottschall, here is one of his TED Talks from 2014

Extras 2

And here is a more recent TED Talk of his from 2017