Filed under: Culture
I always have a book on the go. So this study about how reading satisfies a deep human need intrigued me–and the fact that the study involved Twilight and Harry Potter books.
Seems that when we read, in our minds we “become” vampires (in the case of Twilight) in that we immerse ourselves in the fictional community–and this satisfies our basic human need for belonging.
(Come to think of it, I’m currently reading Bacon: A Love Story–and it’s taking me awhile to get through it. Perhaps I can’t identify with truly belonging with bacon; more of a just-wanna-eat-it relationship, me thinks :).
April 28, 2011
TV is linked to so many unhealthy things (for making you feel less satisfied with life and increasing your risk of heart disease), so I found this research from Ohio State University interesting: while TV’s often seen as evil, our favourite TV shows can play an important role in our lives.
Say if Mad Men were to go off the air? For some of us who have developed a strong connection to characters, this would be particularly distressing. And the study found it’s not as though we’d be likely to start being more socially and physically active. In fact, we’re more likely to start watching reruns of the show or surf the net.
April 21, 2011
For the first time I understood why people come back from Alaska with fifty pictures of glaciers or return from a honeymoon in Tahiti with fifty pictures of the same sunset. The world is so beautiful in these places, it is impossible to register that there will be more, more, more. Surely this is it. Negotiate with your ailing camera battery. How can it not stay alive for this? How can you believe that twenty minutes from now there will be an even taller forest, an even wider waterfall? We are only as good as our most extreme experiences.
(A paragraph I particularly like from Sloane Crosley’s new book, How Did You Get This Number?)
February 15, 2011
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