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Emily Dickinson said over a century ago

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that there is no frigate like a book to take us lands away,

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and it's true.

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When we pick up a book, turn on the TV, or watch a movie,

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We're carried away down the currents of story into a world of imagination.

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And when we land, on a shore that is both new and familiar,

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something strange happens.

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Stepping on to the shore, we're changed.

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We don't retrace the footsteps of the authors or characters we followed here:

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no. Instead we walk a mile in their shoes.

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Researchers in psychology, neuroscience, child development, and biology

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are finally starting to gain quantifiable scientific evidence

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showing what writers and readers have always known:

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That stories have a unique ability to change a person's point of view.

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Scholars are discovering evidence that stories shape culture

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and that much of what we believe about life comes not from fact

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but from fiction, that our ideas

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of class, marriage, and even gender

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are relatively new, and that many ideologies which held fast for centuries

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were revised within the 18th century, and re-drafted in the pages of the early novel.

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Imagine a world where class, and not hard work, decide a person's worth.

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A world where women are simply men's more untamed copy.

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A world where marriage for love is a novel notion.

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Well, that was the world in which Samuel Richardson's Pamela first appeared.

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Richardson's love story starred a poor, serving-class heroine

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who is both morally superior and smarter than her upper-class suitor.

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The book, challenging a slew of traditions,

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caused quite a ruckus.

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There was more press for Pamela than for Parliament.

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It spawned intense debate and several counter-novels.

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Still, for all those who couldn't accept Pamela,

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others were eager for this new fictional world.

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This best-seller, and all its literary heirs,

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Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and yes, even Twilight,

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Have continuously shared the same tale, and taught similar lessons

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which are now conventional and commonplace.

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Similarly, novels have helped shape the minds

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of thought leaders across history.

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Some scholars say that Darwin's Theory of Evolution

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is highly indebted to the plots he read and loved.

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His theory privileges intelligence,

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swiftness, and adaptability to change- all core characteristics in a hero.

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Whether you're reading Harry Potter or Great Expectations,

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you're reading the kind of plot that inspired Darwin.

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Yet recent studies show that his theory might not be the whole story,

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our sense of being a hero- one man, or one woman, or even one species

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taking on the challenges of the world might be wrong.

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Instead of being hard-wired for competition,

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for being the solitary heroes in our own story,

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we might instead be members of a shared quest.

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More Hobbit than Harry.

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Sometimes, of course, the shoes we've been walking in can get plain worn out.

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After all, we haven't walked just one mile in Jane Austen or Mark Twain's shoes,

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we've walked about a hundred trillion miles in them.

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This isn't to say that we can't read and enjoy the classics,

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we should travel with Dickens,

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let Pip teach us what to expect from ourselves,

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have a talk with Austen and Elizabeth about our prides and prejudices.

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We should float with Twain down the Mississippi,

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and have Jim show us what it means to be good.

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But on our journey, we should also keep in mind

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that the terrain has changed. We'll start shopping around for boots

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that were made for walking into a new era.

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Take, for instance, Katniss Everdeen and her battle with the Capitol.

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Can Hunger Games lead us into thinking about capitalism in a new way?

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Can it teach us a lesson about why the individual should not put herself before the group?

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Will Uglies reflect the dangers of pursuing a perfect body

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and letting the media define what is beautiful?

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Will Seekers trod a path beyond global warming?

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Will the life and death struggles of Toklo,

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Kallik, Lusa, and the other bears chart a course for understanding animals

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and our place in their world?

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Only the future will tell which stories will engage our imagination,

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which tales of make-believe we'll make tomorrow,

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but the good news is this:

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There are new stories to venture in every day.

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New tales that promise to influence, to create, and to spark change.

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Stories that you might even write yourself.

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So I guess the final question is this:

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what story will you try on next?