On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction

This is a very important book--important in its own right, but also important as a marker for significant change in the academic study of the humanities. For a generation or more, the humanities have resisted the developments which have occurred in the departments that surround them. Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive science--a panoply of subjects that build upon the advanced study of Darwin, evolution and the structure and function of the brain (now facilitated enormously by imaging instruments) have changed the face of anthropology, biology, psychology and other disciplines, while the humanities stood in opposition not only to aspects of contemporary science but often to science itself.A number of individuals have attempted to bridge these gaps, individuals such as Lisa Zunshine and Patrick Colm Hogan. Their task has not been easy, given the long romance between the academic humanists and the French Nietzscheans, a romance that has involved the subscribing to notions which are internally inconsistent, contrary to common sense and millennia of experience and, now, definitively, contradicted by science. Chomsky, Steven Pinker and others have played a decisive role here, but Boyd's book, which is cognizant of all of the relevant scientific work, emerges directly from the humanities and utilizes studies of cognition and evolution to trace the origins of stories and storytelling.Basically, Boyd sees art as an adaptation, one that brings advantages in our struggle for survival and procreative success. He studies the ways in which stories focus attention (as play does) and foster collaboration and unity. This heightened form of play yields a heightened form of sociality, creates `creativity', refines and extends our cognitive skills, helps us to understand one another's thoughts, intentions and motives, see our world from multiple perspectives, explore possibilities and not just actualities, command attention, enjoy status and foster recriprocal altruism (among other things).In the course of his study, Boyd focuses on two specific texts to elucidate and validate his method: Homer's Odyssey and Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! These extensive analyses are searching, lucid and effective.Most important, this is a large book. Boyd is aware that he is throwing down a gauntlet, though we are now reaching the hour when the reign of Theory is largely in the past and the thoroughgoing opposition to empiricism and the doctrinaire beliefs that we cannot talk reasonably about `human nature' and that everything is culturally constructed (to give two examples) are increasingly seen as untenable and even quaint. In a jacket blurb, David Bordwell compares Boyd's work with Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, because of its imaginative sweep and analytical precision. Basically, Frye was trying to bring `system' to literary study. Boyd is as well, but Boyd's `system' is closer to `science' and it is validated by the work of thousands of individuals in science and social science departments. Frye's myth/ritual/Jung-inspired program did not enjoy the foundational strengths of Boyd's and it was often loosely taxonomic rather than truly systematic.Most interesting, I believe, is the fact that Boyd's position validates thousands of years of humanistic thought, from Aristotle to Horace, Sidney, Johnson, the Kant of the Critique of Pure Reason (though not perhaps the Kant of the Critique of Judgment) and the successful practice of the storyteller's art by a host of writers whose work has been not only substantive but widely popular. In short, Boyd's study of human nature, human behavior, human development and human artistic expression squares with what many of us have long believed and it does so through the leverage of contemporary, cutting edge science.That does not mean that it is beyond question or dispute, for much of this contemporary science remains inchoate and our understanding of the human brain remains limited and partial and not all will draw the same conclusions as a Boyd or Pinker, e.g., with regard to religion, but the bottom line is that this work restores much of what we have lost in literary studies and it does so with intelligence, authority and great promise for the future.

I am a great admirer of Brian Boyd, and I am grateful to him for his brilliant and illuminating analyses of Nabokov. On the Origin of Stories is likewise brilliant—or at least extraordinarily clever. And the book contains some powerful insights, such as the connection between art and play. Still, perhaps because of overly high expectations, I came away from the book both unconvinced and a little disappointed.It seems to me that anyone who has fully experienced Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion or Nabokov’s A Letter that Never Reached Russia will know that Boyd’s theory, while perhaps explaining some of the ways in which art serves human development, cannot explain art itself or our experience of art. Nabokov once commented that the artist is a story-teller, a teacher, and an enchanter. Boyd’s utilitarian theory of art, while helping to explain the roles of story-teller and teacher, fails to capture the enchantment.

Not a full review, but an additional note: I wanted to add that Boyd is very good at making his topic engaging. His work was a joy to read. The prose was crisp and clear, and theories were well-illustrated by examples. Most of these examples came in the form of animal behavior stories or childhood development test results, but they were always clear and pertinent.I would not normally write a review (or an addendum to the other fine reviews out there) just to say a book is well-written, but in the field of literary criticism this is really a rare treat. The post-modernists have taken the joy out of literature, and Boyd and the other evocritics/Literary Darwinists are attempting to unearth it after 40 years of Derrida, difference, and textuality.Honestly -- read any article by someone like Judith Butler or Homi Babha and then read a chapter of Boyd. You will feel as if you have traveled from a country whose official language is babbling nonsense back to the world of clearly-articulated English. If you can't explain your ideas to other professionals in the field, let alone educated laypeople, then your ideas likely aren't very well conceived. By contrast, Boyd demonstrates clear and careful thought throughout his book. It is apparent that he worked through every idea quite carefully and did his best to demonstrate each fully.Highly recommended!

A very thought provoking book that drives home a particular argument for why we tell stories and uses the Odyessy (the mother of all literature) to illustrate why we tell stories. It's informed my thinking on this subject.Not a book I would read again and again for pleasure, since it is rather thick and I paid so much attention the first reading, but it's a pleasure to read a book by a Homeric scholar.This book is not really "about evolution", despite its title, although it does look at how we evolved to think, and why stories seem to be necessary for our cognition, and thus survival.The lens is backwards, through literature, rather than through science. A good and enjoyable choice by a careful and skilled scholar who believes, deeply, that stories make us human.

An astonishing book. Brian Boyd explains human evolution like your favourite biology teacher and explains stories like a friend who loves novels. Highly recommended to anyone wanting to dig deeper into why we tell stories (I'd also recommend  Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence ). Now I know why I loved my career in journalism so much - on a good day, I made sense of the world and got lots of attention into the bargain. Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

wrote my short paper in university on the changing mind of the evolving human due to art. This book was quite fascinating to me. If you are interested in storytelling or evolution you will like this work. Well done.

Quite comprehensive and convincing, though the writing style tends towards the scientific and is thus at times a little repetitive and dry. But for anyone interested in storytelling of whatever sort and for whatever reason, this book is a bit of a must.

It was delivered very quick considering it was dispatched from UK. Thoroughly enjoyed and the read and insight to the world of football.

I bought this book for my PhD research. It didn't disappointed me at all.I recommend it to anyone interested in storytelling and narrative.