Jason Gots posted a brilliant essay and video this week on his blog big think. Cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga talks about how the mind creates coherence through narrative, seeking to bring all of the experience and sensory input into a truth that can be understood and identified as an expression of the self. He postulates that this is why we are drawn to fiction, for the reader’s experience of a story that, when later encountered in real life, can be coped with and assimilated. This is an expression of something I have always felt sure of, that storytelling is intrinsic and necessary to the human experience.
And: it’s nice to have the blog back after the SOPA protest black out. The very clear and simple message that creative expression needs to be unfettered, is a part of free speech and a human right, seems to have been absorbed by Congress. Could be that the internet as a growth sector and economic engine had something to do with it. At least that is the narrative coherence I am telling myself right now. Enjoy the wise and insightful words of Professor Gazzaniga.
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