A Story Is a Deal: How to Use the Science of Storytelling to Lead, Motivate and Persuade by Storr Will

Author:Storr, Will [Storr, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780349437224
Amazon: B0D9LF4LGQ
Goodreads: 216566222
Publisher: Piatkus
Published: 2025-02-20T08:00:00+00:00

3.8

William Shakespeare’s King Lear shows what happens when humans undergo a nightmare even more dreadful than ostracisation. Shakespeare understood that there’s nothing more likely to make a person mad, desperate and dangerous than the removal of their status. The play is a tragedy, a form that frequently shows how hubris – which can be viewed as the making of an unsound claim to status – can bring personal destruction. Such tales were told repeatedly by the Ancient Greeks and, of course, form real-life narratives that play out continually in chimp troops and human tribes. These dramatic status reversals have probably been part of our existence for millions of years.

King Lear is a canonical example of a story in which the right external change strikes the right character at the right moment and thereby ignites a drama that feels as if it has its own explosive momentum. Its plot serves specifically to shatter its protagonist’s deepest, most fiercely defended identity-forming beliefs. Just like the story of Charles Foster Kane, its ignition point and subsequent causes and effects are the seemingly inevitable consequences of its protagonist’s flawed model of the world.

It all begins as an ageing Lear, heralded by trumpets, announces he’ll divide his kingdom between his three daughters, its spoils being distributed in accordance to how well they perform in a love test. The more they adore him, the better the reward. In the defective reality that Lear’s brain creates for him, he’s the unrivalled, beloved and never-to-be-disputed king of everything around him. Lear naturally accepts the reality of the world with which he’s presented. His neural models predict he’ll consistently be treated with reverence and deference. This flawed model, which of course feels absolutely real and true, causes him to make mistakes that critically damage his ability to control the external world. When his manipulative daughters Regan and Goneril respond to his love test with extravagantly sycophantic oaths of boundless love, he doesn’t question them. Why would he? They’re simply reflecting the reality his brain’s models are predicting. It would be like questioning the shining of the sun or the singing of the birds.

But Lear’s third daughter, his favourite Cordelia, refuses to play. When she says she loves him no more or less than any daughter loves her father, she puts herself in conflict with his precious models. He responds as we all do, when our most sacred identity-forming beliefs are challenged. He pushes back. First, he threatens her: ‘Mend your speech a little, lest it may mar your fortunes.’ When she refuses, he disowns her: ‘I disclaim all my paternal care.’ Cordelia will now forever be ‘a stranger to my heart and me’.

Lear’s commitment to his flawed models is such that when the newly powerful Regan and Goneril begin conspiring to take everything from him, he struggles to perceive what’s happening. As the predictions his models are making about the world increasingly fail, he reacts with denial, either in the form of ape-like rage or simple disbelief. When he

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.