tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post6179834005339851092..comments2023-08-15T05:06:03.233-06:00Comments on The Writing Sisterhood: Teaching Empathy: A Novel ApproachThe Sisterhoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09889577041903181315noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-20406627504518414902013-10-20T12:16:16.425-06:002013-10-20T12:16:16.425-06:00I hadn't heard of this study. It's very in...I hadn't heard of this study. It's very interesting and hopeful, especially because it suggests practical applications.Kerryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281288495129054688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-36347166806383571192013-10-20T12:14:02.039-06:002013-10-20T12:14:02.039-06:00Gone Girl is right there on the edge of popular vs...Gone Girl is right there on the edge of popular vs literary fiction, isn't it. Interesting how I empathized with both main characters, depending on how I was being manipulated by the author. Kerryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281288495129054688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-88934535143980359112013-10-16T14:50:18.481-06:002013-10-16T14:50:18.481-06:00I think many people find that distinction troublin...I think many people find that distinction troubling. "The category of literary fiction has been contested on the grounds that it is merely a marker of social class, but features of the modern literary novel set it apart from most best-selling thrillers or romances," the study authors write. Literary fiction "unsettles reader's expectations," whereas genre fiction meets expectations — that's why you see the same formulas in (almost) every genre-fiction novel. Literary fiction also relishes in vagueness, not telling the reader how to interpret the narrative or the characters' motives. Popular fiction tends to be unsubtle. Literary fiction makes the reader work, popular fiction is "intended to entertain ... mostly passive readers." Those are some other differences, beyond character- vs. plot-driven.<br /><br />I have no problem with the idea that bad writing exists. You are more likely to find it in popular (plot-driven) fiction, but it's not synonymous with popular fiction. Pop fiction can be very skillful. I can't do plotting very well, myself: I have great admiration for popular fiction's expert twisty-turny plotters like Gillian Flynn.<br /><br />Back to the study: "In the absence of a clear means of quantifying literariness, the judgments of expert raters (i.e., literary prize jurors) were used. Accordingly, to study the effects of reading literary fiction, we selected literary works of fiction by award-winning or canonical writers and compared their effects on [empathy] with reading nonfiction, popular fiction, or nothing at all." <br /><br />Which maybe helps? I dunno.Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-29461354144349174602013-10-16T14:18:02.436-06:002013-10-16T14:18:02.436-06:00"Like the ones that leave black rings around ..."Like the ones that leave black rings around your eyes"<br /><br />Too true, Crystal! I can think of a few examples of books that drag you into the viewpoint of some monstrosity of a human. Not exactly pleasant reading.Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-46608131246861218312013-10-16T14:15:51.474-06:002013-10-16T14:15:51.474-06:00I love the image of off-roading with a character!I love the image of off-roading with a character!Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-50949068154372875882013-10-15T13:00:37.377-06:002013-10-15T13:00:37.377-06:00We all need reminders that there's no us and t...We all need reminders that there's no us and them. It's all us. If literature can help with that, fantastic.<br /><br />The distinction between literary and popular fiction is interesting, perhaps even a bit troubling. There's definitely a difference in quality implied there - maybe appropriate but the conclusion is more informative. Character-driven narrative improves empathy, plot-driven narrative less so - feels less judgmental thinking of it in those terms.<br />The Armchair Squidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13509001761075530940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-50110484453922611102013-10-14T15:13:48.654-06:002013-10-14T15:13:48.654-06:00Awesome, and so true. I mean, regardless of the ge...Awesome, and so true. I mean, regardless of the genre or intent, you get inside someones else's head every time you pick up a book. How could you not help but see the world through a different lens? That said, there are some lenses I'd rather not EVER look through. Like the ones that leave black rings around your eyes, but that's another subject for another day.<br /><br />Awesome post!Crystal Collierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912469552483168148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-21694863969219398362013-10-14T09:32:48.468-06:002013-10-14T09:32:48.468-06:00"reading fiction seems to increase empathy&qu..."reading fiction seems to increase empathy"<br /><br />Love that! It seems so many people think reading is only good for your brain to build brain cells and nothing more. I think that's why the saying "At least they're reading!" exists. But I love it when other things are called to our attention, like the fact that we can learn to see things through another's eyes. I like your example of "Water for Elephants" because that's so true about the nursing home environment. I also agree with the literary aspect of drawing out a person's empathy. Genre fiction tends to follow the same formulas and it's nice to go off-roading with a character and really wonder what is going to happen with this person. And finding out that although it might be scary/sad/romantic/exciting it's fun to enjoy the ride and feel satisfied with what you've read.Mary Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09429769115085903305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-32761522134295061372013-10-14T09:27:01.977-06:002013-10-14T09:27:01.977-06:00I like how you use the analogy of the long term be...I like how you use the analogy of the long term benefits if a person just keeps at it. It's been shown that it takes about six weeks for a person to form a new habit. Maybe learning to empathize with others through literature might take a little longer, but I can see how by just reading that empathy could form over time.Mary Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09429769115085903305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-56638343592358538892013-10-14T08:18:20.736-06:002013-10-14T08:18:20.736-06:00Thanks, Denise! I think even the darkest and edgie...Thanks, Denise! I think even the darkest and edgiest books can be empathy-building, depending on how they go about it. I mentioned the example of "The Good House" to Lorena under her excellent post last week about anti-heroines: the protagonist of that novel is a bitter, aging alcoholic who is destroying herself and the people around her. We were asked to take on her perspective, and I think the author made her accessible enough that most readers will be able to. "Water for Elephants" had a fairly bleak view of life in nursing homes, and I walked away feeling like I knew better what life inside nursing homes was like; I could imagine what it must be like to be old, to have your shining past be irrelevant to everyone but you, to be seen by your family as a burden. A book doesn't have to be uplifting to build empathy, and maybe the saddest stories are the ones we need to try hardest to understand.<br /><br />(Which isn't to say I don't love a good cuddly book with a pink cover sometimes!)Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-11992608209557686942013-10-14T08:01:16.281-06:002013-10-14T08:01:16.281-06:00Oh! And since you are finishing up Gone Girl, I wa...Oh! And since you are finishing up Gone Girl, I was going to mention Gillian Flynn, especially as an example of a blurry line between literary and popular fiction. It's a thriller, but I thought the writing was pretty top-notch, and the character development was superb (if disturbingly so). But Flynn was actually one of the "popular fiction" excerpts given to test subjects, along with Danielle Steel! Isn't that odd? I found that odd. Why not give them something like Dan Brown? Or Fifty Shades. (Maybe they didn't want to traumatize subjects?)Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-17139657412467091562013-10-14T07:58:47.834-06:002013-10-14T07:58:47.834-06:00I am hoping to get a copy of the full study with m...I am hoping to get a copy of the full study with my scientist-hubby's help tomorrow, so I may be able to find out more. But one of the articles about it did say the effect of each "dose" of book was short-lived: boosting test results for only a few hours or up to a day. Probably like eating your vegetables, it's something you'd have to make a habit of. We get short-term benefits from each instance of brushing our teeth and exercising, too; we get long-term benefits from keeping those habits up. Is that a good analogy? I don't know, probably we'd need to study it more to find out. We do tend to get better at things we do repeatedly.<br /><br />Good darn question about the dark characters. I think empathizing with someone is different than liking them, though. If an MC is truly someone you can't empathize with, I'd say the writer fell down on the job; that, or it could be just a bad fit between you and that character. Remembering last week's topic, I rarely come across an MC whose perspective I totally cannot get into. "The Dinner" had an unreliable, rather awful protagonist who demands a tenuous empathy only in the first few chapters. But that author was kinda pulling a Nabokov. That doesn't happen too often in fiction, even literary fiction.Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-17989151836822976892013-10-14T07:47:40.002-06:002013-10-14T07:47:40.002-06:00Good to hear! What does he think of this study?Good to hear! What does he think of this study?Stephaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02187854108656107958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-88054289448991692592013-10-13T22:57:41.803-06:002013-10-13T22:57:41.803-06:00Hello Stephanie. Love you wrap up line: You can ne...Hello Stephanie. Love you wrap up line: You can never go wrong with bringing more empathy into the world. Totally agree. I can see why literary fiction might create more empathy, but of course, that depends on the literary fiction. Some of that can be very dark and edgy, perhaps not the best for empathy-building. But I love to lose myself in books that are works of art, and would love to write like that too, but I write popular fiction. <br /><br />DeniseDenise Covey https://www.blogger.com/profile/07106490051555233439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-44478466509205325672013-10-13T22:09:23.153-06:002013-10-13T22:09:23.153-06:00Very interesting. I can see this theory working fo...Very interesting. I can see this theory working for children and some adults, but I wonder if it has a "long term" effect. I mean, I tend to retain/remember a lot of the books I read (or films I watch--BTW,does this study apply to films too?) but I know a few people who quickly forget what they've read. I wonder what happens with their empathy then. <br /><br />I'm not surprised literary fiction works better for this. More often than not, these kinds of characters are better developed and seem real to us, whereas in more commercial work, a lot of characters seem more like archetypes, not individuals. Plus we don't spend a lot of time inside their minds. Having said this, a lot of literary characters I've read have been very negative, which makes it hard to emphasize with them. You understand them (or not) but don't necessarily like them.Lorenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17848249911635132594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3266371808927804670.post-6241422256324068792013-10-13T14:39:09.745-06:002013-10-13T14:39:09.745-06:00I heard about this on NPR the other day.
My husban...I heard about this on NPR the other day.<br />My husband's an English teacher at a CC and has had his students study Kite Runner.Sandra Coxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03814573408898140885noreply@blogger.com