Wonderworks

January 8, 2021

In this latest work, Fletcher (English, The Ohio State Univ.; Evolving Hamlet) has produced an orderly account of literary inventions throughout the centuries. The author skillfully draws attention to a number of inventions from global contexts and language backgrounds such as Zhuangzi's un-training of un-yin and un-yang in 5th century China, the invention of the psychedelic reading of "wonder" in 20th century England, and Plato's "serenity elevator" in 4th century BC Greece. A surprising element is the book's real-life application of the inventions, or, how does this work for one in real life? The missing piece in Fletcher's book is its lack of explicit statement-of-worldview under-girding the analysis. Specifically, the focus on the brain and literary allusions as well as references to deity as evidences of invention seems to portray there is no truth to the statements under examination. That being said, readers will be impressed by Fletcher's scope and inclusion of literary invention. VERDICT Wonderworks is for those readers who like to consider the history of literature, yes, but also those who like to think about the technical aspects of literary devices used across that history.--Jesse A. Lambertson, Univ. of Chicago Law Libs.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2021
Reading good books doesn't just entertain us; it teaches us how to better use our brains and our emotions, as this lively treatise tells us. Fletcher, a professor of story science at Ohio State's Project Narrative, holds doctorates in both literature and neuroscience, which meet fluently in this thought-packed survey. The long-held pedagogical view of literature, he writes, has instructed us "to see literature as a species of argument." The author believes, however, that literature is a type of technology, "any human-made thing that helps to solve a problem." Our problem is what to do when we think about such things as love, which, in terms of the storytelling about it, involves two elements: self-disclosure and wonder, "a feeling of awe, of specialness." A good story about love "primes the dopamine neurons in the reward centers of our brain, sweetening our thoughts with a touch of pleasure." So it is that Sappho's love-drenched lyrics, a Chinese ode in the Shijing, and certain poems of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman lead us to "discover wonder intimate." There's plenty of deep diving into the workings of the brain in discussions framed by works of literature, some well known and some not, as well as by genres. For example, horror stories "give us a fictional scare that tricks our brain into an invigorating fight-or-flight response." That response, Fletcher recounts, implicates various parts of the body, from the hypothalamus to the kidneys, and it can yield an entertaining rush. Other emotions and mental states that are less easy to tame, such as shame, depression, and alienation, can also respond to literary prompts, yielding paranoia and anger. The trick to calming them? Maybe try reading Winnie-the-Pooh, which "instead of giving us a reason to quake at the imagination's wilds...treats our brain's fear regions entirely to fun." An idiosyncratic, richly detailed, often lyrical invitation to reconsider how and why to read literature.

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