Stories that are actually stories

Tyler Cowen in his entire list only gives two stories that actually are stories: Washington and the Cherry Tree and Paul Revere's Ride. That is to say that these are examples of stories that actually exist and we know we can go find them if we want. Paul Revere's ride is so familiar that Cowen doesn't even refer to the ride he just says, "the story of Paul Revere" in perfect confidence that we won't think of some other story about Paul Revere's great romance or his first day in school.

And that should trouble us because these are very specific types of stories that we usually call myths. Myths are often stories that serve a moral purpose irrespective of whether they are true. There is also a pejorative sense of myth used to describe a false story that a lot of people believe but ought not to. And a story can be both at the same time. Many of the stories told about the JFK assassination are myths in both senses.

All the other examples are types of stories or story elements. Despite what Cowen says, "the good versus evil story" doesn't exist. There are thousands of stories that are good versus evil stories and many of them have a monotonous familiarity but he is not entitled to call them all the same story.