The Glint off the Lion s Molars:

1. The Glint off the Lion�s Molars: Narrative and experience from an evolutionary standpoint Tim Horvath, MFA Candidate in Creative Writing, 2007 University of New Hampshire My talk today is entitled �...� What I�ll set out to accomplish today will be, in short, to focus our attention on a couple of aspects of narrative that have, I believe, been overlooked heretofore in the growing and vibrant evolutionary analysis of literature. There is also a personal dimension to this work that reflects my concern as a writer for how to embody evolutionary paradigms in my writing, as well as in my thinking about writing. At last year�s HBES, in my talk entitled �QWERTYUIOP and EP: Implications of Evolutionary Psychology for the Working Fiction Writer,� I sought to establish the notion that fiction writers should be interested in evolutionary psychology, should find ways to incorporate the paradigm into their existing working methods and habits of mind. This year I�m going to build on that by arguing that by examining evolutionary evidence, we can attain a better, sharper grasp of a couple of aspects of narrative, detail and narrative authority, that every writer should find critical. Since I believe that these elements cut to the essence of the storytelling impetus and the appeal of storytelling itself, I hope this argument will invigorate an evolutionary aesthetic that much more. My talk today is entitled �...� What I�ll set out to accomplish today will be, in short, to focus our attention on a couple of aspects of narrative that have, I believe, been overlooked heretofore in the growing and vibrant evolutionary analysis of literature. There is also a personal dimension to this work that reflects my concern as a writer for how to embody evolutionary paradigms in my writing, as well as in my thinking about writing. At last year�s HBES, in my talk entitled �QWERTYUIOP and EP: Implications of Evolutionary Psychology for the Working Fiction Writer,� I sought to establish the notion that fiction writers should be interested in evolutionary psychology, should find ways to incorporate the paradigm into their existing working methods and habits of mind. This year I�m going to build on that by arguing that by examining evolutionary evidence, we can attain a better, sharper grasp of a couple of aspects of narrative, detail and narrative authority, that every writer should find critical. Since I believe that these elements cut to the essence of the storytelling impetus and the appeal of storytelling itself, I hope this argument will invigorate an evolutionary aesthetic that much more.

2. ? �A scene will not be vivid if the writer gives too few details to stir and guide the reader�s imagination; neither will it be vivid if the language the writer uses is abstract...these two faults, insufficient detail and abstraction where what is needed is concrete detail, are common�in fact all but universal�in amateur writing.� (John Gardner in the Art of Fiction) �Be specific. Learn the names of everything: birds, cheese, tractors, cars, buildings.� (Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones.) �Write what you know.�--Anonymous Therefore, I begin with a mystery. The advice you see above is typical of that given to writers, especially those of narrative. Why is it that writing teachers, presumably masters of their craft, are constantly imploring novices to �be specific,� and to follow the age-old adage, �Write what you know?� Of course, there are variations on this advice, and teachers with imagination will define �what you know� loosely enough that it can accommodate a writer stepping well outside of his/her autobiography�after all, there are many ways of coming to �know� something, as we�ll soon discuss. Nevertheless, the advice at its core remains unambiguous and has the status of a near-universal in terms of the teaching of writing. My suggestion is that this advice is no accident, but instead builds on our evolved propensities, and that we must go back to the roots of storytelling itself to begin to understand it.Therefore, I begin with a mystery. The advice you see above is typical of that given to writers, especially those of narrative. Why is it that writing teachers, presumably masters of their craft, are constantly imploring novices to �be specific,� and to follow the age-old adage, �Write what you know?� Of course, there are variations on this advice, and teachers with imagination will define �what you know� loosely enough that it can accommodate a writer stepping well outside of his/her autobiography�after all, there are many ways of coming to �know� something, as we�ll soon discuss. Nevertheless, the advice at its core remains unambiguous and has the status of a near-universal in terms of the teaching of writing. My suggestion is that this advice is no accident, but instead builds on our evolved propensities, and that we must go back to the roots of storytelling itself to begin to understand it.

3. The Puzzle of an Evolutionary Understanding of Literature As evidenced by panels like this one and elsewhere at HBES, we are beginning to put together the pieces of the puzzle of understanding literature from an evolutionary standpoint. It is likely that no one theory will trump the others, but rather that, just as literature clearly builds on a wide range of evolutionary predispositions, mechanisms, and brain circuits, it will require many theories to fully accommodate this complex set of phenomena. So that, for instance, we will need to consider the �costly signaling� notion of Geoffrey Miller, whereby the ability to tell a story effectively denotes reserves of intelligence and the ability to entertain. We will have to consider Lisa Zunshine�s �Theory of Mind� hypothesis, whereby literature serves as a veritable �gym� to work out our �Theory of Mind� muscles, rewarding us with pleasurable sensations as we hone our Machiavellian edges. Moreover, the role of attention-seizing and coalition building propounded by Brian Boyd surely has some part in the explanation, as we consider the way in which writers struggle to hold our attention and direct it. Surely, thematic analysis of literature as conducted by Barash and Barash, who unravel evolutionary forces at work in canonical works, is valuable, as we would surely expect the content of stories to reflect the things we are prone to pay attention to, or which lurk just beneath the surface of conscious attention but guide it nevertheless. And no doubt literature brings us some semblance of �cognitive order� as Joseph Carroll has argued, as a story allows us some vantage point on the world itself. The hypothesis I am going to discuss today, then, the �Information acquisition and experience amplification� hypothesis, suggested originally by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, is by no means meant to exclude these other theories, but rather to augment and extend them. I focus on this one in particular because in some ways it may be easier to overlook because of the role that information has taken in our culture.As evidenced by panels like this one and elsewhere at HBES, we are beginning to put together the pieces of the puzzle of understanding literature from an evolutionary standpoint. It is likely that no one theory will trump the others, but rather that, just as literature clearly builds on a wide range of evolutionary predispositions, mechanisms, and brain circuits, it will require many theories to fully accommodate this complex set of phenomena. So that, for instance, we will need to consider the �costly signaling� notion of Geoffrey Miller, whereby the ability to tell a story effectively denotes reserves of intelligence and the ability to entertain. We will have to consider Lisa Zunshine�s �Theory of Mind� hypothesis, whereby literature serves as a veritable �gym� to work out our �Theory of Mind� muscles, rewarding us with pleasurable sensations as we hone our Machiavellian edges. Moreover, the role of attention-seizing and coalition building propounded by Brian Boyd surely has some part in the explanation, as we consider the way in which writers struggle to hold our attention and direct it. Surely, thematic analysis of literature as conducted by Barash and Barash, who unravel evolutionary forces at work in canonical works, is valuable, as we would surely expect the content of stories to reflect the things we are prone to pay attention to, or which lurk just beneath the surface of conscious attention but guide it nevertheless. And no doubt literature brings us some semblance of �cognitive order� as Joseph Carroll has argued, as a story allows us some vantage point on the world itself. The hypothesis I am going to discuss today, then, the �Information acquisition and experience amplification� hypothesis, suggested originally by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, is by no means meant to exclude these other theories, but rather to augment and extend them. I focus on this one in particular because in some ways it may be easier to overlook because of the role that information has taken in our culture.

4. The Sex Lives of Concepts Sexual selection (Miller) Costly signaling and handicap principle (Miller) Theory of Mind (Zunshine) Cognitive order (Carroll) Attention and coalition-building (Boyd, Disannayake) Thematic analysis (Barash & Barash) Information-acquisition and processing (Sugiyama): �The 40 Year Old Virgin� of concepts In short, as the above graph indicates, out of all the theories alluded to, �Information-acquisition and processing� must have the least �sex appeal.� The very word �information� is a veritable turn-off, making one think of reading a brochure for birth control right before having a sexual liason with someone. In short, as the above graph indicates, out of all the theories alluded to, �Information-acquisition and processing� must have the least �sex appeal.� The very word �information� is a veritable turn-off, making one think of reading a brochure for birth control right before having a sexual liason with someone.

5. Information ? Rosenblatt (1938): Efferent/Aesthetic a continuum In fact, there are deeply-embedded cultural reasons for this lack of appeal. Information has long been severed from aesthetics, and in some ways they have been viewed as opposites. Information is practical, utilitarian, and its aesthetic appeal is deemed utterly irrelevant at best, distracting at worst. Aesthetics, on the other hand, is glorified as �higher,� beyond the utility and practicality of information. We don�t want to wind up like the William Burroughs character described in the quote above, who clearly just doesn�t get it, and verges on the autistic. In 1938, in her seminal work on reader-response theory that predated the contemporary incarnation of this school of criticism by many decades, Louise Rosenblatt argued that efferent, or reading for information, and aesthetic, or reading for pleasure and emotional engagement, ought to be placed on a continuum. My effort, then, is congruent with Rosenblatt�s. What I hope to convince you of today is that at least when it comes to narrative aesthetics, it is crucial to see that information is inextricable from aesthetic accomplishment.Rosenblatt (1938): Efferent/Aesthetic a continuum In fact, there are deeply-embedded cultural reasons for this lack of appeal. Information has long been severed from aesthetics, and in some ways they have been viewed as opposites. Information is practical, utilitarian, and its aesthetic appeal is deemed utterly irrelevant at best, distracting at worst. Aesthetics, on the other hand, is glorified as �higher,� beyond the utility and practicality of information. We don�t want to wind up like the William Burroughs character described in the quote above, who clearly just doesn�t get it, and verges on the autistic. In 1938, in her seminal work on reader-response theory that predated the contemporary incarnation of this school of criticism by many decades, Louise Rosenblatt argued that efferent, or reading for information, and aesthetic, or reading for pleasure and emotional engagement, ought to be placed on a continuum. My effort, then, is congruent with Rosenblatt�s. What I hope to convince you of today is that at least when it comes to narrative aesthetics, it is crucial to see that information is inextricable from aesthetic accomplishment.

6. What role does information play in the various arts? Visual art Music Dance Briefly, then, let�s discuss the role that information plays in the other major arts. Take visual art. There�s certainly �information� in the Edward Hopper painting above�it�s plainly an interior, there�s light, and one can infer that this is a couple, that they�re reading, even that they�re somewhat distant emotionally from one another, particularly when one notes the distracted, somewhat disaffected look on her face. He appears to be a businessperson, it seems to be evening...but, all of this, it should be noted, is loose, baggy conjecture. In short, there is a narrative going on here, but it remains to be specified, whether in the mind of the viewer or by the painter or his critics. One wouldn�t want to leave this, say, as a note on the refrigerator for a loved one, not unless there was a pre-established code of interpretation that indicated how it was to be taken�in short, a contextual narrative. Consider, along these lines, what it would mean to admit a painting into courtroom evidence versus admitting a small chunk of narrative, such as an email. Again, for the painting one would have to reconstruct the narrative around the work for the jury in order to persuade them that meaningful information could be ascribed to it. Music and dance are in even worse shape as far as their informational utility. The esteemed literary critic Elvis Costello put it best when he said, �Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.� What is implied in this assessment is the notion that one can�t meaningfully dance about architecture, and the reason, I would argue, is that whatever dance refers to, it is not an efficient means of conveying information about subjects which are technical and information-dense. Dance conveys a great deal of meaning about the dancer, the potential inherent within human physiognomy, and perhaps, as Geoffrey Miller might have it, the mate value of the dancers involved. It also may reveal a great deal of information about a culture, including values and rituals, as well as how that culture reinforces those values and its sense of itself. But it is not designed as a medium of information, certainly not information that might shift from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, or moment-to-moment. Briefly, then, let�s discuss the role that information plays in the other major arts. Take visual art. There�s certainly �information� in the Edward Hopper painting above�it�s plainly an interior, there�s light, and one can infer that this is a couple, that they�re reading, even that they�re somewhat distant emotionally from one another, particularly when one notes the distracted, somewhat disaffected look on her face. He appears to be a businessperson, it seems to be evening...but, all of this, it should be noted, is loose, baggy conjecture. In short, there is a narrative going on here, but it remains to be specified, whether in the mind of the viewer or by the painter or his critics. One wouldn�t want to leave this, say, as a note on the refrigerator for a loved one, not unless there was a pre-established code of interpretation that indicated how it was to be taken�in short, a contextual narrative. Consider, along these lines, what it would mean to admit a painting into courtroom evidence versus admitting a small chunk of narrative, such as an email. Again, for the painting one would have to reconstruct the narrative around the work for the jury in order to persuade them that meaningful information could be ascribed to it. Music and dance are in even worse shape as far as their informational utility. The esteemed literary critic Elvis Costello put it best when he said, �Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.� What is implied in this assessment is the notion that one can�t meaningfully dance about architecture, and the reason, I would argue, is that whatever dance refers to, it is not an efficient means of conveying information about subjects which are technical and information-dense. Dance conveys a great deal of meaning about the dancer, the potential inherent within human physiognomy, and perhaps, as Geoffrey Miller might have it, the mate value of the dancers involved. It also may reveal a great deal of information about a culture, including values and rituals, as well as how that culture reinforces those values and its sense of itself. But it is not designed as a medium of information, certainly not information that might shift from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, or moment-to-moment.

7. Information�s Vitae Dennett (1995), after Miller: Animals (and humans) as �informavores.� Tooby and Cosmides (1992) in �The Psychological Foundations of Culture�: �The study of cognition is the study of how humans and other animals process information.� Geary (2005): �In a nutshell, the function of brain and mind is to process socially and ecologically salient information and to guide the organism�s behavior in ways that result in survival (e.g., prey capture) or reproductive (e.g., mate detection) advantages� (123). Because the concept of �information� has such a venerable history within EP, and has been instrumental in shaping EP�s portrait of the mind and behavior, it behooves us as evolutionary literary thinkers to make our terms consilient with those so dominant in the field, and that is part of what I hope to do today.Because the concept of �information� has such a venerable history within EP, and has been instrumental in shaping EP�s portrait of the mind and behavior, it behooves us as evolutionary literary thinkers to make our terms consilient with those so dominant in the field, and that is part of what I hope to do today.

8. Narrative 4-1-1 Michelle Sugiyama�need for information acquisition in fluctuating environments might have driven evolution of storytelling. Sugiyama draws from three main sources of evidence for her theory.Sugiyama draws from three main sources of evidence for her theory.

9. Fitness-related knowledge The two major categories of �fitness-related knowledge� shown above are taken from David Geary�s the Origin of Mind , and these correspond nicely with the types of information that Sugiyama states can be found in hunting/foraging stories. The �Theory of Mind� hypothesis sketched earlier accounts largely for the fact that hunter-gatherer stories are filled with �social information,� which is of course highly linked to fitness demands. Few would argue with the idea that stories are replete with depictions of social exchange Sugiyama, in contrast, focuses on �subsistence, or ecological information,� which is slightly more challenging to find in h/g stories, and not nearly as obvious as social information. Nevertheless, for our purposes it is important to note that there is bound to be an overlap in these two types of information to the point of near collapsing of the distinction in h/g societies. After all, when you are looking for meat you are enhancing your status, and when you locate it and bring it back you need to figure out who to share it with. The same applies to the planning and collaboration that goes into hunting�eminently social, yet laden with concern for subsistence information.The two major categories of �fitness-related knowledge� shown above are taken from David Geary�s the Origin of Mind , and these correspond nicely with the types of information that Sugiyama states can be found in hunting/foraging stories. The �Theory of Mind� hypothesis sketched earlier accounts largely for the fact that hunter-gatherer stories are filled with �social information,� which is of course highly linked to fitness demands. Few would argue with the idea that stories are replete with depictions of social exchange Sugiyama, in contrast, focuses on �subsistence, or ecological information,� which is slightly more challenging to find in h/g stories, and not nearly as obvious as social information. Nevertheless, for our purposes it is important to note that there is bound to be an overlap in these two types of information to the point of near collapsing of the distinction in h/g societies. After all, when you are looking for meat you are enhancing your status, and when you locate it and bring it back you need to figure out who to share it with. The same applies to the planning and collaboration that goes into hunting�eminently social, yet laden with concern for subsistence information.

10. Evidence 1: Demands of Hunter-gatherer Living �Species-typical algorithms cannot specify what is good to eat in particular locations; this information must be gleaned from the environment itself� (Sugiyama) Information-gathering and processing pervades behavior (Mithen): sampling and searching using cues (tracks, excretions, terrain, vegetation, sounds, smells, animals/plants, weather) often stored in stories and ritual both planned/discrete and continuous not necessarily for immediate use Sharing of resources/information (Biesele) Self-explanatory, I think.Self-explanatory, I think.

11. Evidence 2: The Nature of Narrative Renders events coherently, enhancing memorability, manipulability, etc. �[W]ell-designed for comprehensive simulation of� environment...�people, events, and phenomena, time, topographical...space, and the animate and inanimate objects that occupy it.� (Leitch, ctd. in Sugiyama 239). Transmittable and distributable at low-cost and risk Enjoyable! Also: Transactional Durable Again, self-explanatory.Also: Transactional Durable Again, self-explanatory.

12.  Evidence 3: Storytelling in hunter-gatherer societies �The !Kung talk endlessly about hunting and pass on news of recent events.� (Sugiyama) Stories rather than lists, lectures, assertions Seamlessness between mythical/actual, animal/human/spirit realms Extremely detailed (Biesele) Repetition One might draw a distinction between �telling the hunt� and the more ritualized stories in that �telling the hunt� is bound to be more conversational, with all the interruptions, digressions, cross-examinations and asides that one expects from conversational narratives across societies (see Neal Norrick�s excellent study, Conversational Narrative: Storytelling in everyday talk for more on this distinction). One might say that the more formal the storytelling, the more invariant the features of the environment that are likely to be encoded. Seamlessness between mythical/actual, animal/human/spirit realms One might draw a distinction between �telling the hunt� and the more ritualized stories in that �telling the hunt� is bound to be more conversational, with all the interruptions, digressions, cross-examinations and asides that one expects from conversational narratives across societies (see Neal Norrick�s excellent study, Conversational Narrative: Storytelling in everyday talk for more on this distinction). One might say that the more formal the storytelling, the more invariant the features of the environment that are likely to be encoded. Seamlessness between mythical/actual, animal/human/spirit realms

13. So�.. Can we find �fossils� in contemporary narrative?

14. McCarthy�s Pleistocene Aesthetic �They were running on the plain harrying the antelope and the antelope moved like phantoms in the snow and circled and wheeled and the dry powder blew about them in the cold moonlight and their breath smoked palely in the cold as if they burned with some inner fire and the wolves twisted and turned and leapt in a silence such that they seemed of another world entire...Then he saw them coming. Loping and twisting. Dancing. Tunneling their noses in the snow. Loping and running and rising by twos in a standing dance and running on again� (4). Let�s take a look at the opening pages of Cormac McCarthy�s masterful novel, The Crossing, hailed by critics as one of the great works of contemporary American prose. This is a passage about wolves. Note how MCarthy describes them in great detail, enabling us to visualize their physical movements, using repetition (�loping�/�loping�), etc. If we step back from this brief excerpt and examine the first fifty pages of the book in general, one might say McCarthy is writing prose that is veritably Pleistocene in its aesthetic. He describes not just the physical movements of the wolves, but takes us through the landscape, giving us place-names that show us the direction of movement through the southwest, how wolves react to hunger, thirst, and physical boundaries. As he does so, McCarthy almost seems to tap into a �theory of wolf mind�; as in so many traditional stories, he anthropomorphizes the wolf just enough to give her appetities, intentions and goals, but maintains enough of her wolf nature that she does not act anomalously for her species. Further, we can see the way the wolf is both completely real and somewhat mythical (��seemed of another world entire.�) In short, McCarthy�s writing reminds me of the cave paintings found in places such as Lascaux, which it has been argued encoded information about hunting, but also may have been used for sacred rituals (see, along these lines, Steve Mithen�s brilliant exegesis in Thoughtful Foragers (1990) pg. 227-229.)Let�s take a look at the opening pages of Cormac McCarthy�s masterful novel, The Crossing, hailed by critics as one of the great works of contemporary American prose. This is a passage about wolves. Note how MCarthy describes them in great detail, enabling us to visualize their physical movements, using repetition (�loping�/�loping�), etc. If we step back from this brief excerpt and examine the first fifty pages of the book in general, one might say McCarthy is writing prose that is veritably Pleistocene in its aesthetic. He describes not just the physical movements of the wolves, but takes us through the landscape, giving us place-names that show us the direction of movement through the southwest, how wolves react to hunger, thirst, and physical boundaries. As he does so, McCarthy almost seems to tap into a �theory of wolf mind�; as in so many traditional stories, he anthropomorphizes the wolf just enough to give her appetities, intentions and goals, but maintains enough of her wolf nature that she does not act anomalously for her species. Further, we can see the way the wolf is both completely real and somewhat mythical (��seemed of another world entire.�) In short, McCarthy�s writing reminds me of the cave paintings found in places such as Lascaux, which it has been argued encoded information about hunting, but also may have been used for sacred rituals (see, along these lines, Steve Mithen�s brilliant exegesis in Thoughtful Foragers (1990) pg. 227-229.)

15. �He met Adina Rojas in 1924 at a dance. He was eighteen, ragged, his single possession the little green accordion he had bought a month earlier in a Texas cotton town after staring at it for weeks through a barbershop window seeing how the color of the bellows was fading in the strong sun and the broken thumb strap curled. It needed many repairs. He bought it for five dollars without hearing a note from it. Something about the instrument appealed to him through the fly spotted glass and even then he was impetuous. A button stuck, the corner blocks under the bass grille had fallen off, the wax was cracked so that the reed plates rattled, the leather check valves were dry and curled, the gaskets had shrunk. He took the instrument apart carefully, learned to repair it by observation and by asking others. So he discovered the correct mixture of beeswax and rosin, where to purchase fine kidskin for new valves, and worked on it until it was sound and he could join his voice to its distinctive, bitter music� (100). Events Dates Locations Causes/effects Socio-economic conditions Wants and motivations Personality Sensory�vision and sound Actions The parts of an accordion Proulx, Informavore (�Rojas� means red, so no Stroop effect there, ha ha). Let�s take a writer who�s subject matter is less plainly tied to hunting and subsistence concerns, Annie Proulx. Her novel Accordion Crimes, also highly regarded, traces the path of an accordion from its �birth� in Sicily to an accordion-maker who dreams of making his fortune in �Merica,� to New Orleans, Wisconsin, Maine, etc., as we watch the accordion travel from player to player. Even a brief passage can be used to illustrate the number of types of information that are encoded here (see the chart on the right). What interests me here in particular is the amount of information devoted to the parts of the accordion. Why, one might ask, is there so much detail on the craft, and even the anatomy, the innards, if you will, of the accordion?(�Rojas� means red, so no Stroop effect there, ha ha). Let�s take a writer who�s subject matter is less plainly tied to hunting and subsistence concerns, Annie Proulx. Her novel Accordion Crimes, also highly regarded, traces the path of an accordion from its �birth� in Sicily to an accordion-maker who dreams of making his fortune in �Merica,� to New Orleans, Wisconsin, Maine, etc., as we watch the accordion travel from player to player. Even a brief passage can be used to illustrate the number of types of information that are encoded here (see the chart on the right). What interests me here in particular is the amount of information devoted to the parts of the accordion. Why, one might ask, is there so much detail on the craft, and even the anatomy, the innards, if you will, of the accordion?