When Reality Needs a Better Script
I am restarting the blog. Perhaps “restarting” is too dramatic a word. Blogs, unlike people, have the considerable advantage of being able to disappear for a while without having to explain where they have been. However, in this return, I want to return to something that has driven much of my research for years—the story, or, if one wishes to sound appropriately academic, the narrative . Recent events have again reminded me that the more I look at everyday life, the more fascinated I become by the desperation of storytellers. We all tell stories. Sometimes we tell them to entertain. Sometimes to persuade. Sometimes to explain. And sometimes we tell stories because there is simply nothing else left to do. Reality, unfortunately, has never shown much interest in being coherent. Things happen without appropriate beginnings, satisfying endings, identifiable villains, or even competent scriptwriters. Yet we are expected to wake up the next morning and somehow continue living inside this b...