Ch. 2 Witchery of Story

Gottschall keeps intriguing me more and more as the chapters in his book continue. I now think of things in ways that I have never thought of before. He paints a greater picture on exactly how much each of our lives are greatly impacted by stories and the desire for stories. I don't agree with everything he writes but much of it I do.

When he refers to the Whale boat story I am not completely overcome by the story and the words to where I don't notice any of my surroundings. I have always had that problem when I read any type of words on a page I can get easily distracted. Although, with that being said, there is still times when I do lose track of where I am and do become overcome by the story I am reading.

I found it interesting to think about commercials as little stories that break up the large stories or television shows we are watching. I always thought about them as annoying little interuptions. Now, I try to understand the story behind the commercial and I do have a somewhat better appreciation for commercials.

I am fascinated again by the example of dreams, day or night, as stories. The statisitical hours that we spend dreaming in on fascet or another that he gives is incredible. It made me look back on my day and even week thus far and try and remember how much of it I spent in a dream. I do often catch myself in a day dream either trying to be in a better place than I am currently, or replaying an event in my mind but having it go much differently. I often do this after I talk to girls. I try and think of different scenarios in my mind that could possibly better the situation I was in.

I don't think storytelling could ever become a dying art. I think it will continually change the format in which stories are told. But, stories are a neccessary part of life and become such a cutural norm that they will never go away. Everytime we see some one we exchange stories of our day and if we didn't how strange and awkward would this world be!

Neverland is inside all of us. Each of us may have a different place and will describe neverland very differently but, I think everyone has place that they can go to in order to forget about the world. My neverland often takes me to the land of sports where I am prosperous in upcoming games or events. I actually use this to mentally prepare for my games as well.

I learn more and more every week that stories are every where and you don't even have to look that hard you just have to realize where they are.