{"id":3361,"date":"2021-09-01T09:55:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T09:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2021-09-30T10:10:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T10:10:03","slug":"this-stretch-induced-feeling-of-awe-activates-our-brains-spiritual-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=3361","title":{"rendered":"“This stretch-induced feeling of awe activates our brain\u2019s spiritual zones”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reading Angus Fletcher’s\u00a0Wonderworks: Literary invention and the science of stories for New Scientist, 1 September 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

Can science explain art?<\/p>\n

Certainly: in 1999 the British neurobiologist Semir Zeki published Inner Vision, an illuminating account of how, through trial and error and intuition, different schools of art have succeeded in mapping the neurological architectures of human vision. (Put crudely, Rembrandt tickles one corner of the brain, Piet Mondrian another.)<\/p>\n

Twelve years later, Oliver Sacks contributed to an already crowded music psychology shelf with Musicophilia, a collection of true tales in which neurological injuries and diseases are successfully treated with music.<\/p>\n

Angus Fletcher believes the time has come for drama, fiction and literature generally to succumb to neurological explanation. Over the past decade, neuroscientists have been using pulse monitors, eye-trackers, brain scanners \u201cand other gadgets\u201d to look inside our heads as we consume novels, poems, films, and comic books. They must have come up with some insights by now.<\/p>\n

Fletcher\u2019s hypothesis is that story is a technology, which he defines as \u201cany human-made thing that helps to solve a problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

This technology has evolved, over at least the last 4000 years, to help us negotiate the human condition, by which Fletcher means our awareness of our own mortality, and the creeping sense of futility it engenders. Story is \u201can invention for overcoming the doubt and the pain of just being us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wonderworks is a scientific history of literature; each of its 25 chapters identifies a narrative \u201ctool\u201d which triggers a different, traceable, evidenced neurological outcome. Each tool comes with a goofy label: here you will encounter Butterfly Immersers and Stress Transformers, Humanity Connectors and Gratitude Multipliers.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sneer: these tools have been proven \u201cto alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, sharpen intelligence, increase mental energy, kindle creativity, inspire confidence, and enrich our days with myriad other psychological benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, you may well object that, just as area V1 of the visual cortex did not evolve so we could appreciate the paintings of Piet Mondrian, so our capacity for horror and pity didn\u2019t arise just so we could appreciate Shakespeare. So if story is merely \u201cholding a mirror up to nature\u201d, then Fletcher\u2019s long, engrossing book wouldn\u2019t really be saying anything.<\/p>\n

As any writer will tell you, of course, a story isn\u2019t merely a mirror. The problem comes when you try and make this perfectly legitimate point using neuroscience.<\/p>\n

Too often for comfort, and as the demands of concision exceed all human bounds, the reader will encounter passages like: \u201cThis stretch-induced feeling of awe activates our brain\u2019s spiritual zones, enriching our consciousness with the sensation of meanings beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hitting sentences like this, I normally shut the book, with some force. I stayed my hand on this occasion because, by the time this horror came to light, two things were apparent. First, Fletcher — a neuroscientist turned story analyst — actually does know his neurobiology. Second, he really does know his literature, making Wonderworks a profound and useful guide to reading for pleasure.<\/p>\n

Wonderworks fails as popular science because of the extreme parsimony of Fletcher\u2019s explanations; fixing this problem would, however, have involved composing a multi-part work, and lost him his general audience.<\/p>\n

The first person through the door is the one who invariably gets shot. Wonderworks is in many respects a pug-ugly book. But it\u2019s also the first of its kind: an intelligent, engaged, erudite attempt to tackle, neurologically, not just some abstract and simplified \u201cstory\u201d, but some the world\u2019s greatest literature, from the Iliad to The Dream of the Red Chamber, from Disney\u2019s Up to the novels of Elena Ferrante.<\/p>\n

It is easy to get annoyed with this book. But those who stay calm will reap a rich harvest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Angus Fletcher’s\u00a0Wonderworks: Literary invention and the science of stories for New Scientist, 1 September 2021 Can science explain art? Certainly: in 1999 the British neurobiologist Semir Zeki published Inner Vision, an illuminating account of how, through trial and error … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617,78],"tags":[525,524,232,726],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reviews-and-opinion","category-reviews-and-opinion","tag-narrative","tag-neuroscience","tag-new-scientist","tag-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}