The Business—and Politics—of Storytelling

Byung-Chul Han is one of most popular figures in contemporary German philosophy. More a derivative than an original thinker, he applies ideas of Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, etc., to such facets of modern life as professional burnout, dating apps, and social media. His work appears mostly in the form of short book­lets, in which he announces the disappearance, decline, or death of some previously cherished aspect of human existence—eros, meaningful work, and now, in his latest, The Crisis of Narration, “storytelling.” It would be surprising, at this point, if Han were to announce that there was anything in our poor world of late capitalism that is not in crisis.