Wednesday 18 January 2012

You are what you read

Keith Oatley, a novelist and psychologist has completed a study that suggests readers internalise the experiences of fictional characters and mirror their feelings or actions. .  .http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199767632.do


My eldest daughter can't be the only one who aligns herself to Elizabeth Bennet (although I think the Andrew Davies serialisation with Colin Firth has influenced her somewhat). She told me that she liked the idea of taking a turn round the garden. I suggested that if she continued in that manner I must consider her be one of the two silliest girls in the country.






My favourite novel? The End of The Affair - Graham Greene. 
Relating Oatley's research to my choice and considering internalising the feelings and actions of the characters I was a bit freaked out; the story is about an adulterous affair and covers the themes of love, hate, unfaithfulness and the presence of God in our lives. I'm not sure I have enough energy to internalise any of those intense feelings - least of all mirror them!


However, the main character says at the beginning of the novel that he is a writer and is 'narrating'  the story, to me this suggests that he is also deciding what is recorded - and how.  Therefore 'controlling'  all of the themes, even 'controlling' the divine. Ha! Now that sounds like me!







And the film is pretty good too!



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