How fiction molds us, changes our beliefs, and promotes a deep morality
The Limited Edition Game of Thrones Moleskines have arrived at National Bookstores. No one joined our Summarize GoT for Newbies contest, so they’re all ours. Even the ones with lined pages, which we will use because we love the direwolves. The pocket-size notebook with Summer and Bran (unlined), Php1160. Hodor. We learn about honor and duty from Hodor. Love that causality loop.
Until recently, we’ve only been able to guess about the actual psychological effects of fiction on individuals and society. But new research in psychology and broad-based literary analysis is finally taking questions about morality out of the realm of speculation.
This research consistently shows that fiction does mold us. The more deeply we are cast under a story’s spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.
Large Ghost and Jon Snow Moleskine (lined, dammit), Php1580.
But perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society?—?and it may even help explain why humans tell stories in the first place.
Read Why Fiction is Good For You.
Large Drogon and Daenerys Targaryen Moleskine (unlined), Php1580.
Pocket-size lion sigil with Tyrion Lannister notebook, Php1160.
Incidentally, the paperback editions of Stories and Geeks are now in stores.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 25th, 2016 at 15:31
Nice. Will drop by NBS Cubao later to see if they have the Jon Snow. I have to say, the others look as if they were designed by amateurs :/ I would have loved just the house sigils, but I guess those probably have very pricey licensing fees. Too bad :(
May 26th, 2016 at 19:37
Oh direwolves cute :)
May 26th, 2016 at 20:39
ManilaBeans: There’s a line of notebooks with the sigils. Not Moleskine. They also have stationery boxes with seals etc.