Wonderworks

Literary scholar Angus Fletcher takes a close look at the power of innovations in literature to improve human happiness, and he analyzes these effects on the physical body.

Yes, that's what he does. And my reaction, at first, was exactly like yours. What? I thought.

Then I read it, and I learned how the devices stories use have profound psychological benefits for people.

“The neural leap inside a perpetrator's head...allows our brain to be us while also being someone else.”

“(The happiest of happy endings) can energize our inner optimist.”

Amazing, right? He looks at paradox and comedy and horror and more, and he learns that all of these have incredibly strong positive effects on us as readers.

I knew there was a reason I feel good when I read.