Chapter 5.

The Mind Is a Storyteller

Air Loom Gang- a gang of criminals- uses a machine called The Air Loom to control the House
of Commons in England. This machine vibrates chemical essences into the air and controls men
in the House of Commons. A young man called James Tilly Mathews discovers this conspiracy
and tries to be not affected by the chemicals. He knows the government of England has been
taken over by a powerful conspiracy (including the Prime Minister William Pitt).
THE CRAZED OF THE CRAFT
It turns out that Mathews was confined as an incurable lunatic in Bethlem Hospital. He is a real
classic case in the field of mental health (paranoid schizophrenia- tam than phan liet). The
interesting fact is that Mathews has a quite admirable writing skills and his story plots are
creative and intricate.
Analogies between the creativity of artistic genius and madness have been found: Van Gogh,
Sylvia Plath, Graham Greene, studies conducted on college students…
 There has always a strong connection between mental illness and literary creativity. Creative
writers are also at increased risk of unipolar depression and are more
likely to suffer from psychoses such as schizophrenia.

 Going crazy may be part of the price we pay for having storytelling minds.
SPLITTING THE BRAIN
A neurosurgeon named Joseph Bogen persuaded a severely epileptic patient to undergo a
dangerous experimental procedure. He splits the left and right hemispheres of the brain (by
surgery) to conduct his study.
 A neuroscientist Gazzaniga and his colleagues discover that the right side of the human
body is predominantly controlled by the left brain and the left side by the right brain.
 Understand the brains functions.
SHERLOCK HOLMES SYNDROME
Using his creative minds, Holmes make improbable interpretations that all add up to a neat,
ingenious, and vanishingly improbable explanatory story.

 We humans have minds as Holmes: make interpretations based on what we see, then
fabricate it into a story that seems logical.
 the storytelling mind is a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will
manufacture lies when it can’t.
GEOMETRIC RAPE
Human mind is tuned to detect patterns, it also yearn for meaningful patterns in our
surroundings.
Ex: we alert to human faces and figures causes us to see animals in clouds or Jesus in griddle
marks.
“Human beings like stories.” It interprets on what it saw.
Hungry, Sad, Lust in the same picture of a man.

IT’S JUST A FLESH WOUND

A story of King Arthur and the Knight, who insists that his lost arm is just a flesh wound.
Mentally healthy people are strikingly prone to confabulate in everyday situations.
Ex: group of shoppers to choose among seven pairs of identically
priced socks. They confabulate stories to make their choices appearing to be rational.
A CURSED RAGE FOR ORDER
Human imagination make conspiracy theories and love them.
When conspiracies leaves painful consequences, they no longer be funny.
Ex: criminal Timothy McVeigh believes in antigovernment conspiracies and blows up an entire
Federal building.
 Chapter 6. The Moral of the Story
Religions, Folklores, Myths, ... are conveyed through stories.
SACRED HISTORIES
Supernatural/ National myths are stories that play a binding role in society.
Ex: Every Americans know the story (not true history) of Christopher Columbus. The story may
be wrong in details and misleading but Americans are taught the story.
IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE
A story of a couple (cau chuyen bia ve phi cong tre-may bay ba gia nhung thuc chat la hai me
con- hen ho, yeu nhau)  not morally acceptable by people
People are willing to imagine almost anything in a story but not something morally unacceptable.
VIRTUE REWARDED (chua doc ki)
“…much of the emotion generated by a story—the fear, hope,
and suspense—reflects our concern over whether the
characters, good and bad, will get what they deserve.
Mostly they do, but sometimes they don’t. And when they
don’t, we close our books with a sigh, or trudge away
from the theater, knowing that we have just experienced a
tragedy.”
Violence scenes exposed to children  violence is in fact neutral moral action
Ex: When the villain kills, his or her violence is condemned. When the hero kills, he or she does
so righteously.

Is there really a general pattern of conventional

moralizing in stories—one that stands out around the
world despite some exceptions—where does it come
from?
 it reflects a moralistic impulse that is part of human nature
A teller or actor attracted an audience, synched them up mentally and emotionally, and exposed
them all to the same message.

“Story—sacred and profane—is perhaps the main cohering force in human life. A society is
composed of fractious people with different personalities, goals, and agendas. What connects us
beyond our kinship ties? Story.”
Anh yêu Hổ điên rất nhiều ạ <3.