Well Said

Discussions of storytelling are often bedevilled by pedants, publicists, and proselytizers with predispositions to corporate-type formulations. The internet, for example, offers the three Ps, the four characteristics, the five Cs, and the seven functions of storytelling. For those with moral or religious leanings, those seven functions can be expanded to ten, including illustrations of “relationships to, and with, authority”; descriptions of “appropriate responses to life or model behaviors”; and definitions of rewards and paths to “salvation and damnation.” None of these are helpful exemplars for curious minds who wish to know how storytelling actually works in providing insight into human nature, to say nothing of how pleasure is derived from the sheer act of telling and listening.

Fortunately, J. Edward Chamberlin is one who knows how to recount the origins, essence, and scope of...