Eight of Literature’s Most Powerful Inventions—and the Neuroscience Behind How They Work

Unravel the mysteries of the human mind as we delve into the world of literature's most influential inventions. Discover the fascinating interplay between neuroscience and these literary marvels, and how they shape our understanding of the world.

Literature was an invention for making us happier and healthier

Aristotle hypothesized that literature was many inventions, each constructed from an innovative use of story

• Story includes the countless varieties of plot and character-and it also includes the equally various narrators that give each literary work its distinct style or voice
• Those story elements, Aristotle hypothesized, could plug into our imagination, our emotions, and other parts of our psyche, troubleshooting and even improving our mental function

The Almighty Heart

An invention that tricks your brain into feeling like you’re chanting along with a greater human voice

• Activates the brain’s pituitary gland, stimulating an endocrine response that’s linked to psychological bravery
• Even in the winter of despair, you feel a fortifying spring of hope

The Plot Twist

A literary invention is now so well-known that we often learn to identify it as children

• It thrilled Aristotle when he first discovered it
• Supported his hunch that literature’s inventions were constructed from story
• Confirmed that literary inventions could have potent psychological effects
• Today, wonder can stimulate what psychologists term a self-transcendent experience

The Serenity Elevator

This element of storytelling is a turning around of satire’s tools (including insinuation, parody and irony) so that instead of laughing at someone else, you smile at yourself

• It was developed by the Greek sage Socrates in the 5th-century BC as a means of promoting tranquility-even in the face of excruciating physical pain
• Modern research has held up Plato’s claim that it can have analgesic effects

The Hurt Delay

A plot that discloses to the audience that a character is going to get hurt-prior to the hurt actually arriving

• Aristotle hypothesized that this invention could stimulate catharsis, alleviating the symptoms of post-traumatic fear
• Modern research has revealed that, by stimulating an ironic experience of foreknowledge in our brain’s perspective-taking network, the Hurt Delay can increase our self-efficacy

The Empathy Generator

In this narrative technique, a narrator conveys us inside a character’s mind to see the character’s remorse.

• The remorse can be for a genuine error, like when Jo March regrets burning her sister Meg’s hair in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, or it could be for an imagined error.
• Either way, the invention’s window into a character’s private feeling of self-critique stimulates empathy in our brain’s perspective-taking network.

The Anarchy Rhymer

This innovation is the slipperiest of the eight to spot

• Its blueprint is a rule-breaking element inside a larger formal structure
• The larger structure was originally a musical one
• Since those early beginnings, the invention’s larger structure has evolved to assume narrative shapes, such as the regular geography of Christopher Robin’s Hundred Acre Wood

The Tale Told From Our Future

This invention was created simultaneously by many different global authors, among them the 13th-century West African griot poet who composed the Epic of Sundiata.

• In the late 19th century, it was engineered into the foundation of the modern thriller by authors such as H Rider Haggard in King Solomon’s Mines and John Buchan in The Thirty-Nine Steps.

The Secret Discloser

The earliest-known beginnings of this invention-a narrative revelation of an intimate character detail-lie in the ancient lyrics of Sappho and an unknown Shijing poetess.

• Outside of poetry, variants can be found in the novels of Charlotte Brontë, the memoirs of Maya Angelou, and the many film or television camera close-ups that reveal an emotion buried in a character’s heart.

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