Once, a strong, attractive hero lost one or both of his parents. He then overcame a series of obstacles and faced a demon who terrorized his community. The hero conquered and celebrated the demon.
If this story seems familiar, it is because it is a road traveled backwards by Superman, Harry Potter, Luke Skyvocker and countless other fictional heroes for centuries. Its permanent appeal has surprised researchers for almost a long time. However, in recent years, the study of storytelling has been revived, as linguists, psychologists and experts in cultural development have begun to examine the subject using a large database of myths and folklore, powerful algorithms and a evolutionary mentality. We are beginning to get answers to important questions in the end, which has a good story, why some are more permanent than others and in fact we can detect the roots of the most popular people – as well as stories have detected time and location.
This is an epic discovery, but has never been a better time to do it. Unlike Brothers Grimm and other early folklore, modern surveyors of storytelling do not need to do laborious fieldwork – they do not even have to wander from their computer screen to chart the emergence and development of stories. “Social media is almost a natural experiment in storytelling, which, through its very platform, collects,” California’s University, Berkeley, a folk storyteller and dynasticist Timothy Tangarlini. What is more, this new scientific approach can illuminate some events that seem modern, …
