Our stories about others tell us more about ourselves.
The telltale sign of such mythical, distant reporting is a distinct assuredness. Confusion and vulnerability are stripped away, as are the subtleties and contradictions of life. People and places are reduced to simple narratives — good and evil, victim and killer. Such narratives can be easy to digest. But they tell us only a portion of the story.
Anjan Sundaram, “We’re Missing the Story”, The New York Times (27 July 2014), SR4.