For my discipline reading I chose “Storytelling in Economics”. I found that the reading was not about storytelling in economics per se but rather about the storytelling process. Economic stories were used as a backdrop because they represent stories which grow out of supposed “facts” and “numbers”. One point which was brought up was that most economists do in fact have a point of view and thus are indeed telling stories. They do not simply report dry information.

The most important point, I found, which was brought up by the reading was on page eighteen. It stated that all stories are by their nature selective. A recollection of Niels Bohr (a physicist not an economist) was brought up in which he challenged his students to state everything they knew about all aspects of a piece of chalk. Even describing something so small and simple was impossibly difficult. I find this to be a fascinating point. Very often when stories are analyzed one focuses on theme or genre or message or framing and the like. It would be quite intriguing to consider what details may have been excluded or included and what the underlying motivation may have been.