stories and human nature

[danthemano]

i was wondering, anyone have ideas on the real reasons that us humans tell stories?
other than entertainment, obviously. are we trying to escape our own imperfect lives and live through someones eyes/world/shoes? or is there something deeper there, some subconcious reason for which storytelling has gone about for thousands of years?

[Xx{Midday}xX]

Before, I remember saying that I used anime as an escapist ideal from reality. But that is a reason for why we listen to stories, not really for why we tell them.

A reason for why we tell them may be a representation of some part of the author. It could be something he experienced that he wants to share, or it could be something that he wanted to be. It could just be passion for the profession itself.

OR, it could just be for making money.

[danthemano]

what if storytelling is a part of our instincts?
parents pass down their own traits to their children so that they can fit into society. maybe thats how it started out in the beginning. like the parables of jesus, they had a purpose, and now they seem natural for us-purposeless though they are...

[Xx{Midday}xX]

Originally Posted by danthemano

what if storytelling is a part of our instincts?
parents pass down their own traits to their children so that they can fit into society. maybe thats how it started out in the beginning. like the parables of jesus, they had a purpose, and now they seem natural for us-purposeless though they are...

I think the greater half of the modern population would disagree with all of the statements in this passage.

[devonin]

Originally Posted by Xx{Midday}xX

I think the greater half of the modern population would disagree with all of the statements in this passage.

In CT, we generally follow up statements like that with an explanation as to -why- we make such a statement.

[TheRapingDragon]

The only real reason that humans tell stories, or do anything at all really is because humans have cognitive thinking.

This thought process allows us to store and retrieve thoughts at any time and as such we are able to tell stories that we remember.

[darkness1477]

people used to tell storys as a way of passing on thier history. now we just do it because we have to much time on our hands.

[danthemano]

Originally Posted by darkness1477

people used to tell storys as a way of passing on thier history. now we just do it because we have to much time on our hands.

wow. such critical thinking.
when i have too much time on my hands, i play ffr, i dont walk the streets trying to tell people stories..

[TheRapingDragon]

when i have too much time on my hands, i play ffr, i dont walk the streets trying to tell people stories..

Again, the joys of cognitive thinking allowing you to independently choose what you do due to your own individual thoughts.

Some tell stories, others play FFR. It's all the same thought process happening.

[Smurffy_]

We also tell stories to explain things. Such as why there are stars in the sky, or why we have day and night. Which is passed down from generation to generation, and sometimes some parts of those stories are changed a bit. Until we finnaly get the technolgy to figure out why we have day or night, or why we have stars in the sky. But story telling is not an instinct, but a skill. It's A skill on how to puzzle together words. But, story telling is a part of our history, and still is.

[Cavernio]

Telling stories is as rapingdragon says, due to our cognitive thinking ability, like a side-effect of it. However, stories don't just re-tell what we already know. They piece together things which fit together based on our perceptions of the world. It's imagination.
We have imagination because we're able to remember things and to piece things together in a logical sense, which we have because being able to learn and understand is incredibly useful, evolutionarily-speaking. Also, the ability to imagine many different outcomes in a scenario allows us to be prepared for things. Piecing things together is, well, fun, in its own way. We like doing it.

Story-telling is a side-effect of all the stuff above.

[OMG its HIM]

Originally Posted by Smurffy_

We also tell stories to explain things. Such as why there are stars in the sky, or why we have day and night. Which is passed down from generation to generation, and sometimes some parts of those stories are changed a bit. Until we finnaly get the technolgy to figure out why we have day or night, or why we have stars in the sky. But story telling is not an instinct, but a skill. It's A skill on how to puzzle together words. But, story telling is a part of our history, and still is.

I totaly agree with this statment, what is the point of storytelling besides explanation, or entertanment.

[Artic_counter]

I think that human tell stories to make the other remember something that happenend because if you go back in time people (most of them) we're telling stories that was true. In my familly, we have a book (of course, it is pretty old so we made a new one by rewritting the exact same thing that was written in the old book) that contains stories that our ancestors left to us and each person of our familly has to write a real story that happened to them. So, when I have the chance I open my book and tell a story to my friends or other people that want to listen to me. I think that stories have been made so people could remember something that happenend or to make people understand things (oftenly in the moral at the end).


Also, it can also have been made for telling in a strange way why is there volcano or explain something about nature and everything.