Description

Politics is no longer the art of the possible, but of the fictive. Its aim is not to change the world as it exists, but to affect the way that it is perceived. In Storytelling Christian Salmon looks at the twenty-first century hijacking of creative imagination, anatomizing the timeless human desire for narrative form, and how this desire is abused by the marketing mechanisms that bolster politicians and their products: luxury brands trade on embellished histories, managers tell stories to motivate employees, soldiers in Iraq train on Hollywood-conceived computer games, and spin doctors construct political lives as if they were a folk epic. This “storytelling machine” is masterfully unveiled by Salmon, and is shown to be more effective and insidious as a means of oppression than anything dreamed up by Orwell.

Publisher Review

"This book, which is both concise and clearly written ... guides us through these texts which are largely unknown and now very influential." - Le Monde "There are certain books that make you feel less stupid after reading them than before ... It is a fascinating and never jargon-heavy book." - Le Progres "Fascinating ... intellectually satisfying ... Salmon's insights are though-provoking and have ramifications beyond the world of advertising." - Washington Post