How fiction can change reality - Jessica Wise
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/jessica-wise-how-fiction-can-change-reality Reading and stories can be an escape from real life, a window into another world -- but have you ever...
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Emily Dickinson said over a century ago that "There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away ..." And it's true. When we pick up a book, turn on the TV, or watch a movie, we're carried away down the currents of story into a world of imagination. And when we land, on a shore that is both new and familiar, something strange happens. Stepping onto the shore, we're changed. We don't retrace the footsteps of the authors or characters we followed here. No; instead, we walk a mile in their shoes. Researchers in psychology, neuroscience, child development and biology are finally starting to gain quantifiable scientific evidence, showing what writers and readers have always known: that stories have a unique ability to change a pe...
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Emily Dickinson said over a century ago that "There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away ..." And it's true. When we pick up a book, turn on the TV, or watch a movie, we're carried away down the currents of story into a world of imagination. And when we land, on a shore that is both new and familiar, something strange happens. Stepping onto the shore, we're changed. We don't retrace the footsteps of the authors or characters we followed here. No; instead, we walk a mile in their shoes. Researchers in psychology, neuroscience, child development and biology are finally starting to gain quantifiable scientific evidence, showing what writers and readers have always known: that stories have a unique ability to change a pe...
