WASHINGTON, PA (June 10, 2015) — 华盛顿 & 杰佛逊学院&J) distinguished fellow Jonathan Gottschall’s new book is what he calls the “non-fiction version of 搏击俱乐部.”
笼子里的教授: Why Men Fight 和 为什么We Like to Watch is Gottschall’s seventh book, just a month after its April 2015 release, it has already garnered attention from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 每日野兽, 《det365app》 和 华盛顿邮报.
The book chronicles Gottschall’s personal journey with mixed marital arts fighting in order to answer the two questions within the book’s title: what draws men into fights, why do audiences enjoy watching the action?
Gottschall said he was intrigued by the subject matter when Mark Schrader’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Academy opened in the building across the street from his office in Davis Memorial Hall on the W&J校园. Curious about the warrior culture of MMA, he decided to risk a black eye or two 和 try MMA himself.
While Gottschall dodged hits 和 interviewed fighters, he found himself surprised by the personalities of the people who were training alongside him at the academy.
“You might expect them to be bully types, or even savages,” he said. “I found them to be very ordinary young men who are looking for a challenge or a way to test their strength 和 their courage.”
笼子里的教授 explores both the history 和 the science behind violence, with a focus on the culture of combat sport, the rise of MMA popularity. By the end of his experience, Gottschall came to a surprising conclusion, “I set out to write a book about human violence, but I ended up with a book about the games, 规则, rituals we’ve invented to channel aggression down relatively safe pathways.”
Gottschall said he also learned a lot about himself through testing his physical strength 和 character, experienced a personal growth that he did not expect.
“I wanted to know if I could go into the cage 和 compete bravely,” he said. “The most important thing I ended up learning about myself was that I was capable of it.”
Gottschall also is the author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, which has been reviewed by 全国公共广播电台, 《det365手机版官网》, 奥普拉杂志除其他外.
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