I greatly appreciated Tyloer Cowen’s talk on story. And I hardly disagree with him at all. Story is, in part, a sense-making device. And the fact people use story to structure their lives and their ambitions, and also to convince others that their story is worth joining can be both good and bad. I don’t think of story as much more than a map or a shovel. As a map, story helps us understand where we are. False stories, then, are false maps. And as a tool, story can help us organize our work. But shovels can be used to hit people over the head.
My problem with Cowen’s talk is that he positions himself as the good guy in a story, battling the bad guy, which is, confusingly, STORY ITSELF. If you listen to his talk, he’s doing the exact thing he’s warning us about. He’s telling a story and he’s made himself a character in that story. He’s made himself the hero, rescuing us from bad thinking. That, my friends, is a story.
At about ten minutes in, Mr. Cowen confesses this, but it’s too late. He’s already positioned story as suspect, the way a culture might present shovels as suspect if they’d been used in too many murders. I’d rather have him show us how to use a shovel than scare us about how we are going to be killed by them. What we need, then, is people who tell great stories with their lives, based in truth. We need people to live better stories so those around us can learn to live better stories themselves.
A better method would not be to attack stories (who would win that fight? An earth without Middle Earth is boring) but rather to warn us about making our stories too simplistic, and warning us that stories can be used to manipulate.
As somebody who is routinely painted in real-life stories as either the hero or the villain, I can tell you that simple people who frame life into simple stories are annoying. I have encountered many people who demonize me as the villain, either because of my theology or because I’ve wronged them (as a human) in some way. These people always position themselves as the hero. In other words, the story they are living within is complete fiction. But it makes them feel good, and at my expense. So I love what Tyler is saying here, it’s just that he throws the baby out with the bathwater. Meanwhile, he’s actually swimming in the bathwater himself.
Here’s the talk:
If you want to understand your life as a story, and truly realize the importance of your role in the lives of those around you, consider attending Storyline. We’ve seen thousands of people go from living meaningless, fictional stories about the American dream to meaningful, beautiful stories about relationships and sacrifice. We’d love to have you.
Now, you’re casting yourself as the hero in a story where you defend Story against a false hero! WHERE DOES IT END, DON??
My brain just exploded.
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Huh. Seems to me this is exactly what he did. I didn’t get the sense that he was trying to scare us away from stories (he admits that experts say storytelling is a natural human trait) but that he was raising awareness inviting us to ‘hover’ or think more critically about stories. To live in the tension and messiness rather than reducing everything to simple storylines.
Funny how we both came up with our own story of what this TED talk was really about, eh?
Wow! I never thought of you as a villain? I thought you were just a regular guy with ketchup and mustard stains on your shirt like the rest of us.
I really think you put to much criticism on your self. You need to take off the Author’s cap more often, and kick back and enjoy the game like everybody else.
Don,
Your analysis of that talk sounded like something Chesterton would say in response to a Bernard Shaw lecture. Well done, sir. Well done.
I confess, this did make my brain hurt a little. I’ll try not to blame that on my blonde hair.
Growing up with a narcissistic parent, I suppose I have always been intuitively aware of the danger of living a false reality (or story). Perhaps that is why I read looking for character development. I want to believe we are all capable of change.
I appreciated Tyler’s points about over-simplifying. If what we are really talking about is LIFE, there is much complexity and confusion. Life doesn’t fit into the “either/or” we try to impress upon it. Embracing the “both/and” allows for more color and dimension but can be more difficult to live out.
Simply left-brained thinking attacking right-brained.
Yes.
I’m in therapy now, trying to untangle myself from a legalistic world view (Choose the camp where you choose to be a summer counselor wisely, kids.) God made me an achiever with an artistic wing. Warp that with legalism and the world become binary.
And a world filled with nothing but one’s and zero’s is a cold place.
It’s hard for me to see the fractions in myself and others. But when I do, life is warmer.
Larry, That is a wide road your on (Lots of traffic!). I get it! — (Old 7th Day Adventist Poster Family 1970 here)
I am a sloppy, loose writer most of the time….but you are not and I always enjoy what you write … even though I don’t reply to your stuff…. I always say to myself: Oooh…Let’s see how Larry responded on that one.
That’s kind. But know that I’m skewed. Skewed as people.
And thanks for saying “me too.”
(You know that thing we pick up where being wrong is catastrophic.
I just discovered that I accidentally helped my son build an illegal pinewood derby car and epoxied the transgression in place.I’d destroy the car if I tried to fix it. Weigh-ins in 1.5 hours.
Jesus just did a spit take with his morning coffee at my expense.
I had the same thoughts as Marcus T. even before I read his comment.
~ I have encountered many people who demonize me as the villain, either because of my theology or because I’ve wronged them (as a human) in some way. These people always position themselves as the hero. In other words, the story they are living within is complete fiction. But it makes them feel good, and at my expense.
This sounds too simplistic to me. What I hear is that your assumption is that they are doing this to make themselves feel good at your expense, and even make themselves out as heros. Possibly the case for some so not tossing that out, but it may be that others, whether they got it right or not, see danger in what you share and share that to help all.
Are they really villains? Maybe there are those that are just people trying to do the right thing. We are all in some ways the villain in God’s story if we are not coming from his heart.
I find this type of oversimplifying irksome, or annoying if you’d prefer. I don’t care when others view the behavior or words of another and place what their motivation or reasons for doing and saying things in a box. People can act and react the same with two different underlying motivations. Some may be selfish, but others may be motivated by love for God and others.
Now I find what you wrote on living better stories to motivate others to do so very good. I have actually had the same thoughts, again recently when someone shared a piece on what makes for a good main character that will make a story a success with its readers. I got her point but what I also got from her is that she was saying if your main character is not someone others can relate to then the story won’t do well. I thought that was a sad way of looking at things because many may not be able to relate to Jesus but we shouldn’t bring him down to our level so that we can relate to him. It is true he did come down to our level, but for the reason of raising us to his. So, I’m not interested in what sells in that sense, I’m interested in what inspires others to live in Christ. Just because someone may not relate to another doesn’t mean the fault lies with them, but I can see where it may not toot everyone’s horn.
On Tyler, I thought he was emphasizing how seductive a story can be and that is what art can be, seductive. This is the problem I have when people present the artist better than the mathmetician. I see both having an important role to play. When it comes to being wrong it is easy to detect in the mathmetician where in the artist it is more subtle and seductive so it may not be as apparent.
Now, unless I missed what he was saying altogether, I was surprised to find him using Tolstoy as an example. I do not agree with everything Tolstoy has to share on religion and other things but I do find his input in areas very insightful. Now in his stories (those I’ve read) Tolstoy hits you from different perspectives through his characters and this is one of the things I love about his stories. He’s been described as having that God-like quality of hovering over his characters so you get those different perspectives, although I know as a Christian our perspectives need to be seen from God’s perspective yet God does also use ours too as we would allow him to place ours in his. And Tolstoy has some good input there also in his stories.
My two cents.
Is his clicker to difficult to use one hand? I don’t like that he is so against our lives as a story but is for our lives being a mess. If we spend our days view our lives as a mess that has drastic implications!
If I think my life is just a mess then I’m not going to want to push to do anything. Why should I get up in the morning? My life is just a mess anyway.
But if I can overcome that mess then I have purpose. I think that God gives us a purpose and this purpose is great and wonderful and we do have the ability to live out this journey.
I’m confused by his talk. He says to not think so much in terms of stories but then says that we cannot leave that thinking. I can see the point of this talk to make us aware of the stories that are told and to make sure we are not manipulated by others. But the whole idea of leaving stories even though you cannot leave stories is just a waste of 16 minutes.
I loved what Cowen had to say about our insistence on story making us dumber. It’s a natural reflex, though (God-installed?), so it’s hard to resist in a world where there is SO much information floating around that we’re trying to make sense of and make useful.
I think we have to resist sometimes, though — and it really is an intellectual exercise, especially when every0one around is trying to tell us what the important stories are. When story is used to manipulate, it really can become dehumanizing and even evil.
Example: Do I really know the story of Newt Gingrich’s three marriages? I could tell the story I *think* know in one or two sentences…but the truth is: I have no idea who the villains/heroes are. And the deeper truth is: there probably is no villain, no hero, and the storyline would make a *terrible* movie if it were all told. Too confusing. Too long. No real point to it.
Our commitment to using story to manipulate is so well-honed, we don’t even need sentences. We can do it in a couple of words. “Tax and spend.” Or even one: “Obamacare.”
HOWEVER: there’s a big difference between trying to make a meaningful story out of the mess of real life…and trying to live with a good story as a roadmap. The map won’t be accurate — but it’s good to have one.
After we live through the map (or *as* we live through it), we have to decide what kind of story we’re going to tell about it in hindsight, and how we’re going to use it…that’s a whole other thing. I recently watched “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” and was incredibly inspired. But I’ve heard that the real Gladys Aylward hated that film. It was full of inaccuracies and left out an awful lot of the hard truth (which it had to, of course, so the movie would only be a couple of hours long, instead of years!).
Yep. Story’s a shovel. That’s really all. A really great, God-installed shovel!
Overall, I don’t terribly disagree with you but I feel like you fall into Cowen’s trap of treating stories like a tool to be used or not used. Like something that is formulaic (Cowen) or plotted (you). Story is so much more integral and primal. It is much more than a map and not at all a shovel.
Story is so complex. We create stories and we buy into other’s stories, we weave stories together and we leave stories, we are actors and authors of stories simultaneously and sometimes separately. We communicate through stories and we understand ourselves and our world through stories. We are shaped by the stories we are a part of and that touch us.
Story is, in short, inescapable. It is part of reality and humanity. I think there are two big problems. One is creating too simple of stories, the other is interpreting stories too simplistically. I think the latter is the greater problem. The truth is, few stories are actually simple, people just act like they are. How kids are trained to read books doesn’t help: What is THE theme? What does it MEAN? The truth is that any good story has multiple themes and layers of meaning. Most good stories challenge our preconceived notions of ‘villain’ and ‘hero,’ ‘good’ and ‘bad’ etc. But we have to be good readers to be able to be good writers.
Thanks for sharing this. My issues is that he values cognitive truth, scientific, rational knowledge over the spiritual/emotional truth. He’s right, stories can be dangerous in our easy response to them. But our lives are more dangerous without stories — we’d be bereft of all the benefits of beauty and feeling and inspiration and the truth that can only come to us through our side-long vision, not looking directly at it.
Don, I recommended you to ted.com as a speaker a while back… hopefully some day this will be you on the ted talks.
I really don’t understand what useful ideas he has contributed to the cultural dialogue. I think you are being too generous, Don (but I appreciate that about you, too.) It seems like so much blah, blah, blah. Well, there is a wide range of ideas in this world.
Well, the question to ask is always do I want that guys life? I think I would have thrown something at this guy for wasting air.
Don:
What an interesting story.
Aren’t our lives all about living and sharing story? The video confused the hell out of me. I’m a simple woman, who obviously would annoy the hell out of Don, but I realize my story is not simple. I live in community with friends and family who are full of stories. We’re written into each other stories purposefully to listen and hear, teach and learn, make mistakes and make amends. By taking something from other people’s stories I’ve evolved spiritually and intellectually. I am not ashamed of being the simple woman written into a story she is challenged with on a daily basis.
I was kind of listening to him prattle on and then this hit me between the eyes:
“Pull back and say, what are the stories, what are the messages that no one has incentive to tell, & start telling yourself those- see if your decisions change… that’s one simple way- you can never get out of pattern of thinking in terms of story, but can improve the extent to which you think in terms of stories and make some better decisions.”
For me, that quote makes total sense in light of scripture being the story that no one has incentive to tell, (except God told it to us) and I tell myself that Story… since I “can never get out of the pattern.” I can, however, make some better decisions. This is how I would relate to what he is saying.
To me, Story is synonymous with the human soul, it is a confirmation of our createdness.
I definitely see both sides to this…or should I say 2 of the multitude of sides…don’t want to whittle it down to either/or here…that would be too simplistic.
I will say I am highly suspect of the stories I tell myself, because I concoct all sorts of crap in mine and the stories I have told myself have landed me in many a pit full of crap.
But, I tend to call those lies…because i’m spinning reality to concoct the new “story”…so it’s just a lie.
Jesus is the biggest proponent of us telling our stories…but it’s about something worthy of sharing…
“As He [Jesus] was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged Him that he might be with Him. He [Jesus] didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”
He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled. “
Is “Eternal Limbo” Numero Ocho as far as story types go. That’s what I got out of this. There is no thinking your way out of this. We are all stuck, and thinking who you are, what story type you are in, or whatever is just a crock. The best argument, if anything, and I don’t believe this because I haven’t given it much thought, is that this presentation is an argument for Nihilism.
Speaking of story….There is a (free) discipleship course out there entitled “Story Formed Life” that I have taken twice and it has introduced me to an essential (IMHO) understanding of God’s heart for us. Our ‘stories’ drive how we intereperet the world and it is more difficult than we can comprehend for any individual to understand God’s truth from a perspective outside the one that has been formed through our own experience. This course pushed me to look outside my own story at the REAL story – God’s story where He is the main character and I play a role. And I recommend it to every Christian. I think we never realize how much our story shapes our opinions and hearts and “take” on the word of God. Here’s an exerpt about the course from http://www.storyformedlife.org/
“The Story provides our real context: The western story is almost unconsciously the only story we’re familiar with. Cultural context, after all, is the water we all swim in. We do not realize how deep these roots are sunk into our minds and hearts. The SFL, is a discipleship training tool that exposes the self-focused stories we live in and invites us to enter into an epic story in which God himself is the central character. The Story deepens our faith – The problem in evangelicalism as we know it today, isn’t really an issue of knowledge. Our actions demonstrate we don’t actually believe most of what we claim to know. Increasing our faith in God’s story is the only way to sustainable transformation. The Story gives birth to a redeemed community – Those completing the SFL discover and embrace ONE faith under ONE Lord which results in their ability to form ONE interdependent body, in all its diversity, and to go on mission to make disciples as God’s redeemed community.”
WHY is an economist qualified to say I am losing 10 IQ points per “good vs. evil” story? Make it complex and say some stories are too simplistic if we apply them to all real-world events, but we don’t have to give up stories entirely. Geesh. To borrow a phrase from my dad, an economist and avid reader, this guy could tick off the Good Humor man.
Thought provoking. I have to tell myself not to make either hero or villain too simplistic. Nothing in real life is black and white, so in neither should it in story. But even in real life I can automatically classify someone as either hero and villain and overlook the gray.