Literary Critics Scan The Brain To Find Out Why We Love To Read
Apr 12, 2010 Science and Technology
It is the cutting edge of literary studies, a rapidly expanding field that is blending scientific processes with the study of literature and other forms of fiction. Some have dubbed it “the science of reading” and it is shaking up one of the most esoteric and sometimes impenetrable corners of academia. Forget structuralism or even post-structuralist deconstructionism. “Neuro lit crit” is where it’s at.
Later this year a group of 12 students in New England will be given a series of specially designed texts to read. Then they will be loaded into a hospital MRI machine and their brains scanned to map their neurological responses.
The scans produced will measure blood flow to the firing synapses of their brain cells, allowing a united team of scientists and literature professors to study how and why human beings respond to complex fiction such as the works of Marcel Proust, Henry James or Virginia Woolf.
The students are part of a group called the Yale-Haskins Teagle Collegium, which is headed by Yale literature professor Michael Holquist. “We are a group made up of honest-to-God scientists who spend all day in the lab and a group of literary humanists who are deeply devoted to the cause of literature,” Holquist said.
Full article at the Guardian. If they figure out why we read, does that mean I have to change the title of the blog?
The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ
Apr 2, 2010 Religion and Ethics
Apparently there’s been a lot of controversy over this book, so despite not generally reviewing fiction I decided to give it a look. I really don’t see where the controversy and outrage came from, unless it was just mindless raging at the title.
Instead of a plot description or celebrity endorsements, the back of the dust jacket simply states “this is a story.” That is exactly what this is – an imaginative and surprisingly sympathetic retelling of the story of Jesus.
The characters in the Bible are pretty two-dimensional. This is understandable, considering that most of it is taken from old oral traditions and tribal lore. This retelling, on the other hand, focusses on the human aspects of the well-known tale. There are plenty of nods to the skeptics when it comes to the various miracles, but it’s far from smug – the ending is heart-wrending and personally I found that a human, imperfect Jesus was far easier to sympathise with than a mythical deity (this probably goes for most readers, apart from those with serious megalomania). It’s not long, or demanding, but it’s worth picking up for a quiet afternoon of peaceful reading.
