How fiction can change reality - Jessica Wise

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/jessica-wise-how-fiction-can-change-reality

Reading and stories can be an escape from real life, a window into another world -- but have you ever considered how new fictional experiences might change your perspective on real, everyday life? From Pride and Prejudice to Harry Potter, learn how popular fiction can spark public dialogue and shape culture.

Lesson by Jessica Wise, narration by Emilie Soffe, animation by Augenblick Studios.

Emily Dickinson said over a century ago,

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

and it's true.

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

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

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

something strange happens.

Stepping on to the shore, we're changed.

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

no. Instead we walk a mile in their shoes.

Researchers in psychology, neuroscience,
child development, and biology

are finally starting to gain
quantifiable scientific evidence

showing what writers
and readers have always known:

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

Scholars are discovering evidence
that stories shape culture

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

but from fiction, that our ideas

of class, marriage, and even gender

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

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

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

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

A world where marriage
for love is a novel notion.

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

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

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

The book, challenging
a slew of traditions,

caused quite a ruckus.

There was more press for Pamela
than for Parliament.

It spawned intense debate
and several counter-novels.

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

others were eager for this
new fictional world.

This best-seller,
and all its literary heirs,

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

Have continuously shared the same
tale, and taught similar lessons

which are now conventional
and commonplace.

Similarly, novels have
helped shape the minds

of thought leaders across history.

Some scholars say
that Darwin's Theory of Evolution

is highly indebted to the plots
he read and loved.

His theory privileges intelligence,

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

Whether you're reading Harry
Potter or Great Expectations,

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

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

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

taking on the challenges
of the world might be wrong.

Instead of being hard-wired
for competition,

for being the solitary
heroes in our own story,

we might instead be members
of a shared quest.

More Hobbit than Harry.

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

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

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

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

we should travel with Dickens,

let Pip teach us
what to expect from ourselves,

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

We should float with Twain
down the Mississippi,

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

But on our journey,
we should also keep in mind

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

that were made for walking into a new era.

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

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

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

Will Uglies reflect the dangers
of pursuing a perfect body

and letting the media
define what is beautiful?

Will Seekers trod a path
beyond global warming?

Will the life and death
struggles of Toklo,

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

and our place in their world?

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

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

but the good news is this:

There are new stories
to venture in every day.

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

Stories that you might
even write yourself.

So I guess the final question is this:

what story will you try on next?