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Jonathan Gottschall Biography

Jonathan Gottschall

Jonathan Gottschall (born September 20, 1972) is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He teaches at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, where he is a distinguished fellow in the English department. He is the author or editor of seven books.

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Jonathan Gottschall Quotes

Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story. No matter how hard we concentrate, no matter how deep we dig in our heels, we just can't resist the gravity of alternate worlds.

Alternate, Mind, Minds, Stories, Worlds, Yield

The average daydream is about fourteen seconds long and we have about two thousand of them per day. In other words, we spend about half of our waking hours - one-third of our lives on earth - spinning fantasies.

Average, Two, Long, Words, Per

The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence. It is addicted to meaning. If the storytelling mind cannot find meaningful patterns in the world, it will try to impose them. In short, the storytelling mind is a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will manufacture lies when it can’t.

Allergic, Lying, Meaning, Meaningful, Mind, Patterns

I think that a lot of people who like training with guns are probably drawn to it not only for practical reasons, but also in that same restless quest for physical excellence that draws people to a martial arts dojo.

Art, Dojo, Excellence, Gun, Guns, Thinking

In an effort to civilize combat sports, authorities mandated padded gloves and instantly made the sports far more savage. Granted, putting gloves on the hands seems like a nice thing to do. If you were being punched in the brain by a powerful man, wouldn't you rather he strap a pillow around his fist? But the glove doesn't do anything to diminish your brain damage.

Combat, Damage, Nice, Powerful, Sports, Thing

Putting gloves on the fighters was a symbolic change that suggested that we were now making it a civilized sport, and it was no longer this crazy gladiatorial throwback to ancient Rome. It's even in our language: If you want to get serious and violent, what do you do? You "take the gloves off. " Bare-fisted is supposedly a much more dangerous way to hit someone. But we've got it completely backward. The glove is a weapon. It massively accentuates the ability of the fist to do harm.

Crazy, Glove, Longer, Rome, Sports, Violent

The brain stays up all night telling stories while we sleep. We just call them dreams.

Brain, Call, Dream, Night, Sleep, Stories

Whenever I was confronted in the schoolyard, I found some way to avoid the fight. I ran for it. I backed down. Psychologically and emotionally, that isn't a low-cost course of action for most boys. You avoid a physical beating, but you pay a real social and psychological cost for it. Those moments of walking away from fights, even though I knew it was the rational and civilized thing to do, cost me tremendously.

Avoid, Boys, Fighting, Psychological, Real, Whenever

Don't despair for story's future or turn curmudgeonly over the rise of video games or reality TV. The way we experience story will evolve, but as storytelling animals, we will no more give it up than start walking on all fours.

Animal, Animals, Despair, Games, Reality, Video

In my profession more generally, it's not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it's really not. It's about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy.

Literary, Literary Theory, Roots, Take, Thinking, Works

The top fighters spar hard. They're really sparring for two reasons: One is to improve their technique, but the other, which is just as important, is to build endurance, toughness, and courage. They want to practice as realistically as possible so that when they go into a real fight, the transition isn't as jarring.

Real, Fighting, Practice, Hard, Courage, Fighters

Story is where people go to practice the key skills of human social life.

Human, Keys, Life, People, Practice, Skills

I have this little neighbor next door. He comes over and tells me about playing Call of Duty, and he's talking about, 'Aw yeah, I slit this guy in the throat and then I stuck a grenade up this guy's ass. ' He's describing it in all this detail, and that makes me uncomfortable. I don't think that's good for him.

Call, Doors, Games, Playing, Stuck, Thinking

I don't think people are reacting primarily to the danger of the sport. There are many other activities that are truly dangerous that we have no inclination to ban.

Sports, Thinking, People, Inclination, Dangerous

If someone breaks into your home when you're there - that is, they don't wait to be sure that the house is empty - it's a bad situation. Honor doesn't come into it at all. Anything you need to do to survive at that point becomes A-OK.

Breaks, Home, House, Survive, Waiting

A boxing contest is a brain-damage contest. Who can give out more brain damage and who can absorb more of it?

Boxing, Brain, Contest, Give, Giving

We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.

Sleep, Night, Marketing, Mind, Stories

I think the proper attitude toward fighting sports is one of ambivalence. You can be drawn to them, but you should also be repelled by them.

Attitude, Drawn, Fighting, Sports, Think

It's an empirical question whether training makes one more or less likely to get in a fight outside the gym. In some ways, I'm probably more likely to get into a fight, because I feel more competent, and I know what it's cost me in the past to back down from fights, and I don't want to feel that way.

Back, Cost, Fighting, Likely, Past, Training

We are a species addicted to a stories.

Addicted, Species, Stories

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