The Ending of a Good Story

"The future will see an intensification, even a perfection, of what draws us to fiction in the first place."-Johnathan Gottschall.
When Gottschall says this in his book, he is talking about the evolution of story and just finishing up an interesting section on "reality" tv shows. I think that this statement sums up a large portion of his entire book (and his argument). There are certain things that draw us to fiction: characters, their predicaments, and the characters being freed from their problems. These things are easy to point out in the various forms of storytelling and Gottschall is using it to paint us a picture of how the future will look for storytelling. The various advances in technology are allowing stories to change and evolve based on decisions made by the readers/characters of the story. It is an intriguing point of view and I am inclined to agree with him that storytelling will never fade. In fact, I am one to believe that even the novel won't fade from view entirely. With the new Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers out there, the novel is more easily accessible than ever and will continue to thrive within society. Storytelling itself will continue to evolve in some ways but the spoken story will remain forever a large part of storytelling so long as humans are just that; human.

I did find one source that disagrees with Gottschall and shows the "death of the novel" rather than how story will continue forever. I read through it and was forced to laugh because of how far off I believe it to be. I have already told my thoughts how how story will evolve including the change in the 'novel' itself.
Scott Branson. "Gide, Wilde, and the Death of the Novel." MLN 127.5 (2012): 1226-1248. Project MUSE. Web. 09 Nov. 2013. .

My own research this week was a review/ in depth reading of the sources I have currently and eliminating ones that are too repetitive or aren't focused enough on my topic of choice (how biology has affected the film aspect of storytelling), but I am keeping my other topic on the backburner just in case this one falls through. The sources I have found for this first topic have been listed on previous blog postings, so if you're really curious, feel free to go back through them!

My Story is Better Than Yours

It is my belief that, after doing the assigned reading, it is impossible to write a 100% truthful memoir or autobiography. It is interesting how each person can remember the same occasion in entirely different ways and with strikingly changed details. Memory is something that can't be trusted by itself. Even interviewing others to make a memoir or autobiography "more accurate" doesn't work because their memory of events and conversations can 't be trusted any more than yours can. The only way you can trust the facts is if it has been officially documented. Our own stories whether written or spoken should be taken with a grain of salt because our memories skew the truth. No memoirs are considered completely truthful.
I am inclined to believe that this claim about our memories not being truthful was completely supported by his later claim. We do make up stories and change our belief about the truth we remember. It changes with how our perceptions bend the truth or how other people tell us it happens. When people relate their own truths to us, it can change how we remember certain events ourselves. It is yet more evidence and examples that our memories cannot be relied on for the 100% honest-to-goodness truth.

Jeffreys, Mark. "Dr. Daedalus And His Minotaur: Mythic Warnings About Genetic Engineering From J.B.S. Haldane, François Jacob, And Andrew Niccol's Gattaca." Journal Of Medical Humanities 22.2 (2001): 137-152. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. This source is one that demonstrates the connection between the film industry and our understanding of biology (more specifically for this case, genetics and bioethics). It is an intriguing article that also pulls quite a bit from the stories of old myths (from Greece).

Safran, Stephen P. "Movie images of disability and war: Framing history and political ideology." Remedial and Special Education. 22.4 (2001): 223. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. This article talks about genetics (disabilities) as the human weakness and how there are many instances when people believed that people with disabilities should be "taken out of the gene pool". It also uses several Hollywood films to back up this claim.