Quotes About Narrative

Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet

Todos los relatos que nos dan sentido e identidad son ficticios,

Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths, the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths – by telling different stories. Under the right circumstances myths can change rapidly.

In the twenty-first century fiction might thereby become the most potent force on earth, surpassing even wayward asteroids and natural selection. Hence if we want to understand our future, cracking genomes and crunching numbers is hardly enough. We must also decipher the fictions that give meaning to the world.

Y quizá, lo que es más importante, la inteligencia artificial y la biotecnología están ofreciendo a la humanidad el poder de remodelar y rediseñar la vida. Muy pronto alguien tendrá que decidir cómo utilizar este poder, sobre la base de algún relato implícito o explícito acerca del significado de la vida.

Under the right circumstances myths can change rapidly.

What is the difference between describing 'how' and explaining 'why'? To describe 'how' means to reconstruct the series of specific events that led from one point to another. To explain 'why' means to find causal connections that account for the occurrence of this particular series of events to the exclusion of all others.

History's Biggest Fraud

own voice or have a friend do it for you. When recorded in your own

Go to any lengths to avoid preachiness! If you have to choose between the message and the story, always choose the story.

Human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.

As Cherokee writer Thomas King says, "Take it. It's yours. Do with it what you will. But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now.

When you tell the children tales of the Baba Yaga on a cold winter's night, you might remember to mention that whether or not the witch is wicked often depends on who is telling the story.

Legends had been written about less.

The Soviet version of the Holocaust depicted the event as an assault by fascists on communists, not by Germans on Jews.

political, or ethnic narrative is ipso facto false. Social scientists have described such theories as having a "self-sealing quality" that makes them "particularly immune to challenge.

External motivation is usually the most important to establish early in the book. Internal motivation can take a bit longer to develop and be woven into the fabric of the story one thread at a time. Coincidence:

The whites told only one side. Told it to please themselves. Told much that is not true. Only his own best deeds, only the worst deeds of the Indians, has the white man told. —YELLOW WOLF OF THE NEZ PERCÉ

Out of all these sources of almost forgotten oral history, I have tried to fashion a narrative of the conquest of the American West as the victims experienced it, using their own words whenever possible

No doubt, the White House thinks the American people know Obama's story. But since the Inauguration, we've seen only the president's present: his perfect family, his Ivy League elegance, his effortless mastery of complex issues. We never see him sweat. And we forget that he ever had to struggle.

Malam ini, maaf tak ubahnya aroma samudera lepas atau aroma lumut pegunungan tinggi dari bilik pemulung di TPA Bantar Gebang. Sebuah Hikayat.

We forget old stories, but those stories remain the same.

Comics don't work if the story is all in the text and the images are illustrative. It's hard to have enough faith in the artists to allow them to do their job.

When a narrative chimes with pre-existing beliefs, it can seem so self-evidently true that all conflicting evidence is discarded.