Monday, February 8, 2010

Do stories serve too many purposes? (2)

But, you say, Sheila (whose story I used as an example in a previous post) may be wrong. She may be on the path to a sad life where she makes the same mistake over and over again. Maybe but what is your point? People do that sort of thing. But is it the stories Sheila tells herself that are the problem? Sheila may also be right. She may marry Malcolm and stay with him the rest of her life. This is a common story because it is often true.

But again, you say, Sheila may spend her entire life in a loveless marriage and only wake up to this horrible fact at Malcolm's funeral where she will burst into uncontrollable tears at the thought and it will be grimly ironic because everyone around her will take it as a sign of her deep love for the man when she has actually realized she stopped caring about him decades ago. Yes, that can happen and sometimes does happen. But what's your point?

Does it bother you that we can endlessly substitute one story for another? Why? Isn't this a strength of stories? More importantly for present purposes, however, Tyler Cowen just plain wrong on this point. Stories don't serve too many purposes. It is the glory of stories that they can serve so many purposes.

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