讲故事与叙事2012swombat.com编辑精选
那些甚至并不真实的故事，有什么用？
What's the use of stories that aren't even true?
导读
这篇文章讨论“不真实的故事”有什么用，尤其是虚构在商业写作中的位置。HN 评论把它延伸为：非虚构的历史和科普同样是被建构的叙事，原型与寓言能让读者自己归纳意义，而商业 how-to 的实用性与伟大文学之间存在张力。对写作者来说，这是一次关于故事如何说服人、又如何诚实使用叙事的学习。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写商业或说理文章时，可以先用一个虚构小故事或寓言建立情感入口，再展开数据和论证，读者更容易被推动。
- 02
不要把非虚构当成客观真相：历史、科普和商业案例都在选择与填补，写作时要自觉说明叙事框架，别让顺畅故事冒充事实。
- 03
用原型、神话或寓言传达难以直接言说的“生活真相”，让读者自己归纳意义，而不是把结论全部说死。
- 04
故事的说服力要和内容深度匹配：战术型 how-to 可以用小故事开场，但别指望靠文学化包装把浅层商业知识变成永恒经典。
HN 评论精选
非虚构历史和科普也是被建构的叙事，虚构能帮我们探索情感与选择。
我喜欢这种追问。《大鱼》是相关电影。虚构在商业写作中有一席之地吗？有，而且很需要。Swombat 漏掉一点：我们读的许多非虚构更接近高度推测性的科幻。比如没人真正知道 1700 年的英格兰是什么样；我们有各种记述和假设，用有根据的猜测填空。最终不管有意无意，我们创造了一个对自己说得通的叙事。历史在这种意义上都是虚构的一种，只不过很好、很有教育意义。科普文章也类似：积累研究数据，围绕它编一个听起来科学的演化叙事，读起来很棒，多数人不觉得是虚构，但它不像 2+2=4 或牛顿物理那样接近真理。我们的大脑爱叙事，会在没有故事的地方找故事，这是我们学习的方式。纯虚构不受事实约束，让我们探索情绪状态如何达到，并代入思考自己会怎么做。
DanielBMarkham查看英文原文
I love this line of inquiry. "Big Fish" is a good movie to watch along these lines if anybody is interested. Does fiction have a place in business writing? Yes, and it's sorely needed. One point Swombat missed was that much of what we read as non-fiction is actually closer to very speculative science-fiction. For instance, nobody really knows what the year 1700 was like in England. We have various accounts, we make various assumptions, we fill in the blanks with educated guesses. In the end, whether we mean to or not, we create a narrative of things that happen that makes sense to us. The same goes for 1900, or 1200. All of history in this way is a form of fiction. (A very good and very educational form, I might add) The same goes for what constitutes popular science articles. Somebody wants to write a popular article on how human sexuality developed. So they accumulate lots of studies and data, then create an evolutionary-based scientific-sounding narrative around that. Makes for great reading, and most wouldn't even think of it as fiction, but I don't think it approaches the "truth" of something like 2+2=4, or even the validity of Newtonian Physics. Our brains love narratives, stories, and will find them even where none exist. It's the way we are wired to learn. Pure fiction, by being unconstrained by facts, allows us to explore how various emotional states are reached and vicariously think about how we would act. It does a heck of a lot of good in a lot of ways, the least of which is that it helps us practice how to learn.
原型和神话让听者自行归纳意义，非感官现实不等于假。
决策中有两个要素：一个是“大脑理性”，用数据、演绎推理和具体例子；另一个是“抽象”（理性的反面不是非理性），推理是归纳的，我们能从彼此讲的故事中注意到模式。这就是原型的作用，也是约瑟夫·坎贝尔作品流传的原因。推荐 Robert A. Johnson 的《He》作为入门。讲神话或分享原型，是为了传达关于生活的某种真实，让听者自己归纳意义。演绎推理在创业公司必须创收或死掉的场合有位置，但有时答案无法言说，我们就是“知道”。就像格拉德威尔在《Blink》里说的，爱因斯坦的相对论突然出现在他脑中，之后他花了好几年回溯证明。我的观点是：不基于感官现实，不等于虚假。
austingunter查看英文原文
I love the point you make here. There are two elements at play in our decision-making, the "cerebrally rational" element, with data, deductive reasoning, and concrete examples. The other side is the "abstract" (the opposite of rational isn't irrational) element, where reason is inductive, and we can notice patterns in the stories we tell each other. That's the purpose of an archetype, and why Joseph Campbell's work lives on. If you want a good primer on this, pick up a copy of "He" by Robert A. Johnson. It's an easy read. The purpose of telling a "myth" or sharing an archetype is to communicate something that is true about life, and let the listener induce the meaning. Deductive reasoning has its place, particularly where startups who have to make revenue or die are concerned, but sometimes the answer isn't one we can verbalize. We just "know it." Like Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in "Blink," Einstein's Theory of Relativity popped into his head suddenly one day, and he had to spend the next several years backtracking so he could prove what his mind had unconsciously put together. I guess my point is that, just because something isn't based in sensory reality, doesn't make it false.
商业写作多为实用 how-to，难与伟大文学兼容，故事包装有深度上限。
谢谢这个视角。用虚构传播商业真理很有趣，但麻烦在于商业并不那么深刻，至少大多数人想被 informed 的层面不深。写与商业相关的大思想可以，比如《源泉》给我们的职业卓越教育；但商业非虚构基本由 How-To 书主导。我怀疑把战术和经验性商业知识传给普通读者的平庸要求，与产生伟大文学并不兼容。即使最好的商业非虚构，比如 Chris Anderson 的《长尾》，也远达不到文学伟大。伟大文学作品靠瞄准更高、更大的图景获得普适与永恒；商业书主要关心商业有用性，保质期很短。
mardack查看英文原文
Thanks for the suggested perspective, Daniel. It is interesting to consider using fiction to help spread business Truths. The trouble with that notion, however, is that business is not all that profound; at least not at the level where most people actually want to be informed. It's one thing to write about BIG ideas that relate to business (like the great education in professional excellence we got from Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead). But business non-fiction is dominated by, essentially, How-To books. I find it doubtful that the mundane requirements of transferring tactical and experiential business knowledge to lay readers are compatible with producing great literature. Even the "best" non-fiction business books (like Chris Anderson's Long Tail, for example) fall far short of literary greatness. Great literary works achieve their universality and timelessness by aiming higher, and for a bigger picture. Business books are concerned predominantly with business usefulness, which has a very short shelf life.
小寓言比数据和论证更能推动决定，故事有实际说服力。
讲个故事。十年前我想创业，朋友有兴趣但下不了决心辞掉全职工作。我刚读了一本创业书，讲怎么写商业计划、基础会计等，书开头讲两只猫的故事：一只在主人家里，生活安逸、舒适、无聊；另一只在街头，永远不确定晚饭吃什么，有伤疤和糟糕回忆，但它真正在活。我把书借给朋友，他决定继续我们的计划。他说，起作用的不是理性论证、数据或现实例子，而是开头那个小寓言。于是我们辞了职，花光积蓄和家里一些钱，没找到所需融资，冒险没有光荣结局。全拜那段小小的商业虚构所赐。
danmaz74查看英文原文
I'll tell you a story. Ten years ago I was thinking about trying to create a startup, and a friend of mine was interested in trying with me - but he just couldn't make a decision to leave his full time job. I had just read a book about starting your own business - how to create a BP, basic accounting etc. - and the book opened with a story; the story of two cats. One cat lived at his owner's home, an easy, comfortable, boring life. The other one lived on the street, was never sure about what he could have eaten for dinner, had some scars and bad memories. But he was really living. I lent this book to my friend, and he decided to go on with our plan. As he told me, it wasn't all the rational arguments, the data, the real world examples that did the trick, but that little fable at the start of the book. So we left our jobs, used up all our little saved money and some from our families, failed to find the funding we needed, and our adventure didn't finish in glory. All thanks to that little piece of business fiction.
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