- Joined
- Jun 25, 2010
- Messages
- 7,063
- Reaction score
- 1,643
I would love to understand what happens inside a person's brain when they are swept up in the world of a novel. Are there any experts (or informed lay-people) around who can sketch out how the different parts of a person's brain create what James N. Frey called "the fictive dream"?
Here's my horrible, hand-waving guess at what is happening:
Your left-brain is in charge of understanding words and using logic to puzzle things out. That logical problem-solving seems to be mostly a conscious process--i.e. you're aware it's happening.
Your right-brain is in charge of imagining things (seeing the described scenes, smelling the scents, etc.), as well as feeling emotions, and assembling the "big picture" understanding of what's going on. That "big picture" type of problem-solving, however, seems to be unconscious--i.e. you don't realize it's happening; you just have a "sense" of what it all means.
Also, you occasionally have flashes of intuition about the story. That's again your mind unconsciously working out a solution to a problem, then presenting your conscious mind with the answer.
I believe we define an effective novel to be one that forces our right-brain to engage with the story.
We consider the prose evocative when we get a clear mental picture of the novel's world. We consider the book to be powerful art when it stirs our emotions. We consider it a clever, meaningful work when--through careful foreshadowing and clues--we suddenly get flashes of intuition about what's going on in the story.
All of those things are functions of the right-brain. Our left-brain must engage in order for our mind to comprehend the words, but the right-brain doesn't (always) have to. That's extra, and when a novel succeeds in provoking our right-brain into getting involved, that's when the book seems to come alive.
At least--that's my guess. Again, I would love to hear from an expert in brain science who could explain what really goes on in the human mind when a person gets slurped right into a book--when they lose track of time and see the characters but don't hear their own kids whining for dinner, etc.
Is there anyone here who can expound on the science of this?
Here's my horrible, hand-waving guess at what is happening:
Your left-brain is in charge of understanding words and using logic to puzzle things out. That logical problem-solving seems to be mostly a conscious process--i.e. you're aware it's happening.
Your right-brain is in charge of imagining things (seeing the described scenes, smelling the scents, etc.), as well as feeling emotions, and assembling the "big picture" understanding of what's going on. That "big picture" type of problem-solving, however, seems to be unconscious--i.e. you don't realize it's happening; you just have a "sense" of what it all means.
Also, you occasionally have flashes of intuition about the story. That's again your mind unconsciously working out a solution to a problem, then presenting your conscious mind with the answer.
I believe we define an effective novel to be one that forces our right-brain to engage with the story.
We consider the prose evocative when we get a clear mental picture of the novel's world. We consider the book to be powerful art when it stirs our emotions. We consider it a clever, meaningful work when--through careful foreshadowing and clues--we suddenly get flashes of intuition about what's going on in the story.
All of those things are functions of the right-brain. Our left-brain must engage in order for our mind to comprehend the words, but the right-brain doesn't (always) have to. That's extra, and when a novel succeeds in provoking our right-brain into getting involved, that's when the book seems to come alive.
At least--that's my guess. Again, I would love to hear from an expert in brain science who could explain what really goes on in the human mind when a person gets slurped right into a book--when they lose track of time and see the characters but don't hear their own kids whining for dinner, etc.
Is there anyone here who can expound on the science of this?