Storytelling and "intertexuality" from Barry Glassner

Here is a short piece of commentary from Barry Glassner's book The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things.

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"Parallel reports from large numbers of ordinary peole do not necessarily add up to truth. People often tell similar stories that are not accurate descriptions of reality, as any anthropologist or police officer can testify. Like novelists or playwrights, regular folks adopt common images, plot lines, and themes--elements of what literary crtics call intertextuality-- in telling stories about themselves."

I think this is interesting because is goes back to this narrative thing. And it might be cool to explore visually what these common narratives (alien abductions sound the same, near death experiences, blah blah blah) or other examples of common narratives. . . what they look like. Also, what this term "intertexuality" means further.