Roy Baumeister -The Why, What and How of Consciousness

We are all stories in the end. —Are we ongoing stories as well? 

 I’d like to open up the discussion with this question which alludes to the background image for the group (a rare narratological meme). ‘We’re all stories in the end’ reminds me of the ending of Oedipus Rex—’count no man happy until the days of his life are over’, for it is then and only then you can shape his life as a complete narrative. As to our being ongoing narratives, I was thinking of current neuropsychological approaches (see e.g. today’s video on the blog) which show that the brain has an ‘interpreter’ function which creates and sustains the coherence of our world and our self as a kind of ongoing movie, made out of a feedback of attention, expectations and perception. The world is not nearly as narrative without as as it turns out to be as we pass through it and shape it into our stories.

—This is my opening discussion in the Narrative Theory and Narratology group forum.

Narrative Theory and Narratology blog

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