"It's a thing that happened that shaped my identity, but in no way does it fit with some narrative," she says. "I trace a lot of our differences and, and, you know, we both trace the differences in our personality to the fact that we had totally different childhoods."
Do you think of your life as a story? Does your life have a narrative structure or form? Do you identify with your past selves and your future selves? If not, can you live a good life, a moral life, an authentic life? Can you feel guilt, regret, and resentment? Plus, speaking of stories, we talk about a new study suggesting that books with anthropomorphic animals can't teach moral lessons to kids.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
- Larsen, N. E., Lee, K., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviors in young children?. Developmental Science.
- Children's books with humans have greater moral impact than animals, study finds | Books | The Guardian
- Strawson, G. (2004). Against narrativity. Ratio, 17(4), 428-452.
- Strawson, G. (2007). Episodic ethics. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 60, 85-115.
- Parfit, D. (1995). The unimportance of identity.
- I am Not a Story