Book : Wonderworks The 25 Most Powerful Inventions In The...

-Titulo Original : Wonderworks The 25 Most Powerful Inventions In The History Of Literature

-Fabricante :

Simon & Schuster

-Descripcion Original:

This “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs-rivaling scientific inventions-and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind. Literature is a technology like any other. And the writers we revere-from Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, and others-each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literature’s great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all. Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most significant developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief, trauma, loneliness, anxiety, numbness, depression, pessimism, and ennui, while sparking creativity, courage, love, empathy, hope, joy, and positive change. They can be found throughout literature-from ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeare’s plays, poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and crime novels to slave narratives. A “refreshing and remarkable” (Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me: An Encounter) exploration of the new literary field of story science, Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class, and “contains many instances of critical insight....What’s most interesting about this compendium is its understanding of imaginative representation as a technology” ( The New York Times). Review Fascinating. . . . It blew my mind! -- Malcolm Gladwell If Wonderworks had been around then, I would have sat my son down and read Angus Fletcher’s exploration of the history and the psychology of literature to him, word by word. . . . I hope it will convince others that there are benefits and pleasures that you can get from literature that are unique and valuable. -- Jane Smiley The Guardian Im totally obsessed with Wonderworks. It swallowed me whole. -- Brene Brown, Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, Parcast Network An intelligent, engaged and erudite attempt to neurologically tackle not just some abstract and simplified story, but some of the world’s greatest narratives, from the Iliad to Dream of the Red Chamber, from Disney’s Up to the novels of Elena Ferrante. It speaks to the inner reader in us all, as well as to the inner neurologist. -- Simon Ings New Scientist “ Wonderworks contains many instances of critical insight. . . . What’s most interesting about this compendium is its understanding of imaginative representation as a technology. -- Sophie Gee The New York Times “I’ve been living in Wonderworks for several weeks now, dazzled by its innovations, wild surmises, gifts of insight, unlikely readings and - perhaps most of all - its inspirational force. Angus Fletcher is that rare critic who actually has something to say, who grabs us by the collar and hopes to shake sense into us. This may be one of the most important and truly useful books about literature written in the past decade. It opens a vista into reading that regards writing as a kind of continual experiment in human and societal engineering. That Wonderworks deserves a wide audience goes without saying. It’s refreshing and remarkable on so many levels.” -- Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me: An Encounter If you are interested in both writing and science this is an unmissable book. . . . Fresh and inspiring. -- Brian Clegg Popular Science Reading good books doesn’t just entertain us; it teaches us how to better use our brains and our emotions, as this lively treatise tells us . . . An idiosyncratic, richly detailed, often lyrical invitation to reconsider how and why to read literature. Kirku