Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface ix
4. Introduction: Stories About Origins and Design 1
5. 1 Scripts for Life: From DNA to Poetic Formula 22
6. 2 Recombinations and Change: Ring Structures in Nature and Speech 57
7. 3 Crabs and the Monomyth: Parallel Evolutions and Mythical Patterns 88
8. 4 Going Viral: Big Deeds and Bad Fame 113
9. 5 Symbiosis and Paradigm: What Stories Do in the World 142
10. Conclusion: Inoculation and the Limits of Analogy 179
11. Suggestions for Further Reading 193
12. Notes 199
13. Bibliography 211
14. Acknowledgments 225
15. Index 227