Are the short stories in it real events or made up? How and in which ways such stories, narrated in this book, can influence people and help them for a better relationship?
If these stories work, then what’s the difference between a well-directed movie which could give us lessons and insight the same as those in these stories?
Have you or anybody you know ever been inspired by the stories of this book?
I haven’t read it, or any of the Chicken Soup books, but I watched a few episodes of the TV show. The stories, while sweet on the surface, don’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny at all.
I would not try to use one of those books to fix a relationship.
I haven’t read that particular one, but the Chicken Soups I have looked at were unremittingly unrepentant glurge of the worst Sunday-School type.
Your mileage may vary.
Moved to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Don’t know about this special book, but other Chicken Soup.. books have stories that are completly invented. Severalof these crop up on the Snopes glurge page (and even when they tell a “real” story, it’s “improved”.)
The problem is that made-up stories usually don’t work. That’s why they were invented in the first place, to make things nice and pat. The problem is that trying to inspire people to live real life with made-up stories will leave them
-disillusioned, once they learn that the story was invented
-sometimes resistant to reality if they don’t want to accept that an inspiring story was invented
-frustrated, when their own real life doesn’t work out like the invented story where the author has complete control
To quote from Snopes Glurge main page:
There are many real-life inspirational stories, that can be told without twisting any details; many people, starting from Gandhi and MLK down to some granny only known to a dozen neighbours, that changed the world and made it better, that can be told for real inspiration. Because they deal with real people, overcoming real problems, from fear and self-doubt, to frustration and tiredness, short temper and all other human failings, and also real sources of power these people drew on to overcome the problems, real-life stories are much better for real-life people with real-life problems. (Keeping in mind, of course, that people are different and that works for one person will not automatically work for everybody else).
Here’s an article by Fred Clark on what’s wrong and dangerous about glurge.
I would tend to describe the stories in Chicken Soup books in general ( haven’t read the one in question) as cutesy, probably mostly real, sometimes a little too good to be true stories.
But a movie wouldn’t accomplish the same thing–these are the type of books where you read a story in the five minutes while you wait for someone to mail a letter at the post office. Or while waiting at the dentist, or other small bits of time.
A well-directed movie is something you watch with intent.
How do these stories work (if they work)? By inspiring people to be better partners. By caring more about the other person’s needs. Little things like that.
I wouldn’t have characterized the books the way that DrFidelius did, but he’s not wrong, just harsher than I would be.
If you are looking for a self-help guide to fixing relationship problems, look elsewhere.
I can say that they are all not made up. My brother submitted a story about my Grandmother that was published.
That book came out close to her 89th birthday, and made a really memerable gift.
I haven’t read this specific book, but I’ve read other books in the series.
If the stories are based on real life events, then they’ve been heavily edited. I get the impression that most of the stories are complete fabrications, just modern day morality plays. And all of them gave me a severe case of indigestion. Granted, this isn’t a particularly difficult task, but everything is too neat and tidy in the stories. Real life doesn’t work that way.
To Constanze
By asking my question, I do not try to cast doubt over the stories. I just asked, because there are people whose creativity and imagination to dream up such stories is really out of this world, and they need not to experience [ such stories ] first and then pen them.
Nah, I’m not!
I just like Canfield from The Secret, which I’m a fervid fan of the idea, and the Chicken Soup was mentioned in this movie. So I decided to take a look at the book.