Novels and the Brain

What happens when one reads novels? Are novels bad for the reader? Are novels particularly bad for readers who are young women? These questions were being asked and discussed in the late eighteenth-century when Austen wrote Northanger Abbey. And her novel takes up these questions quite directly. I'm not going to discuss Northanger Abbey right now, but I wanted to point out some of the ways these issues are being debated today.

Scholars who study cognitive science are looking at what actually happens in the brain when the individual is reading literature. Here are some articles in the popular press about those studies.

For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov

This is your brain on Jane Austen

How Literature Changes Your Brain for the Better

How Literature Changes Your Brain for the Better, part 2


For another (much less scientific) direction in this conversation about what people should--or should not--read, try googling phrases like "should girls read Twilight" or "50 Shades of Gray censorship." There are still people out there trying to control or limit what others read.

And on that note, I want to remind everyone that September 21-27 is Banned Books Week. Check out the website.
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org

On the website you can find this list of the most challenged books in 2013:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

(From bannedbooksweek.org http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/about)