Suprise: reading is good for you

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Escapist, pleasurable reading may make readers better able to handle the life they’re living; for me, this is like news that junk-food is good for your health.

According to research (by Maja Djikic, and co-authors Keith Oatley and Mihnea C. Moldoveaunu), reading literary fiction — even a short story — can enhance empathy and decision-making, and allow people to be more at ease with ambiguity.

Two studies were completed; the first study confirmed earlier findings that cognitive empathy is higher among regular readers of fiction, and the second study found that even reading a short piece of fiction resulted in a lower necessity for cognitive closure (psychologist-speak for a lower discomfort with uncertainty and disorder).

Unfortunately, reading seems to be an activity that declines as children grow into adulthood. In another study, forty-eight percent of children between six and eight read on a regular basis, but in the fifteen to seventeen year-old range, the percentage of regular readers drops to twenty-four percent, and seventy percent of these teenagers watch TV or DVDs on a regular basis. I’m not a great lover of eBooks (I enjoy the tactile feel of paper), but I hope it is the invention that turns more young adults into readers.

Well, I’ve got to go now, my book is calling me…

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Regarding the modular calculus…

On the way to work this morning I heard an interview of Keith Oatley, who’s book Such Stuff as Dreams (subtitled The Psychology of Fiction) was published this year.

The material discussed — from within his book —struck a chord regarding the book I’m reading: Trouble on Triton, by Samuel R. Delany (an excellent read: recommended!). I’m beginning to feel as if Delany’s book is an experiment in fiction that uses the ideas in Oatley’s book, although Triton was first published in 1976, thirty-five years before Oatley’s tome!

Such Stuff as Dreams explores several ideas that are inherent in Delany’s book; in fact, the informal remarks toward the modular calculus in Triton seem to be hinting at quite the same thoughts:

• The ways in which reading can influence our understanding of self to facilitate transformation. I hadn’t thought about Triton in this regard until I heard Mr. Oatley, but it seems more than plausible that Delany was purposefully guiding me (the reader) through the text, and even telling me (if only I’d listen) that he was doing so.
• Psychological research into the how and why of identification with fictional characters. Although the main character in Triton — Bron Helstrom —is not a person to identify with (he’s a self-absorbed boor), there are characteristics of his that, unfortunately, I share (this dichotomy — won’t identify with lout, but can identify with him partially — contributes to the literature’s influence as described above).
• How literature can benefit social skills; as per previous two bulleted items.
• Aspects of fiction; plot, setting, characters, theme…modular calculus…
• Writing techniques; metaphor, metonymy (which (uneducated me) I’d never heard about until Triton, where it is mentioned in the informal remarks toward the modular calculus, part I), defamiliarization, et cetera.

I’m almost finished reading Trouble on Triton, but I feel like I have to re-read the whole thing from the beginning; instead, I’ll finish, let it percolate, and re-read in a year or two….

2011-10-11: Update

I’ve finished Trouble on Triton now, and still feel like I’ll need to reread it sometime. I’d Recommend the novel to science fiction fans who like a bit more of a challenging read than the typical Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke…