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Reading, to me, is the best method to learn empathy. We all read differently, in our own headspace, but then need to distill that view through the godhead of a
by snide 2y ago
Reading, to me, is the best method to learn empathy. We all read differently, in our own headspace, but then need to distill that view through the godhead of a fictional character. Movies and TV can't touch that slow drip of mindcopy a book provides. TV we witness, books we live alongside. Often I'm stuck in the personality of a book for weeks at a time, and it's impossible for the experience not to leave a footprint.
Happiness I've found easiest to achieve with that empathy. Understand those around you and know your place in the world and what is and is not possible to change. Being malleable in a group while still retaining a sense of self provides a way to travel and adapt in whatever situation you find. Only books provided me with enough experience to "know" myself and how I'd react in certain scenarios.
I don't think it matters much what you read. Whatever challenges you and gets you to see the world slightly askew.
- mrmetanoia 2y agoone of my college English professors would say 'reading makes your soul grow big,' something he said he heard from a friends dad. it's stuck with me.
- owlninja 2y ago"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me"
- riffraff 2y agoThis is wonderful, I often regret having completely forgotten the content of some books, but this makes me feel less bad about it. If you came up with this thank you dear internet person!
- localhost8000 2y agoIf you want to learn about the provenance: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/20/books/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/20/books/
- riffraff 2y agoAppreciated!
- jaggederest 2y agoThis came up recently on HN, in terms of "kinds of memory" - there are different forms of memory, and we have pretty good evidence that some of them persist regardless of conscious recall. Rest assured that even if you have poor recall of them they continue to shape who you are and how you behave.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoLovely quote! Emerson.
- bufordtwain 2y agoKurt Vonnegut wrote something similar about doing art of any kind.
- MaiaIva 2y agoReading as a method to learn empathy - 100%. To me, diving into different stories and perspectives basically broadens the way I perceive life in general. Some recent mind-bending gems to me were all books by Hanya Yanagihara and the supreme universe Liu Cixin has built.
- graemep 2y agoBooks all some from a much wider range of authors than things like TV. Many authors write about what they know and there are authors from all historical times, and all cultures (current or historical) - as well as imagined ones, of course. I think a strength of books is that they are more likely to require you to adjust to the point of view of the author or the characters, rather adjusting the characters to be easy for you to identify with. That builds more empathy.
- Noumenon72 2y agoI get zero empathy from fiction. Never think "Oh, this guy I met must feel like Atticus Finch" or "So sad, it's like The Grapes of Wrath." I get empathy from reading real people on Reddit saying "you know what's tough about being a waiter/chemist/influencer?" because they explain how real people think.
- mihaic 2y agoI used to think like that, but after reading Anna Karenina I realized that I only get empathy from remarkably few works of fiction. Good writing is very very very hard.
- w0m 2y agoI assume anything I read on reddit at this point is AI written click bait, so giant grains of salt on any personal anecdote probably gives me the opposite reaction.
- jrgoff 2y agoEmpathy may not be the right term for this, but I've noticed recently times of emotional resonance with some characters/stories. One recent example that I particularly noticed this with was actually a Harry Potter fan fiction. It was fairly well written, but you know, not exactly fine literature. But I noticed how activated my emotions were getting reading those stories, the anger coming up about how the character was being treated, the sense of righteousness in her response to the circumstances and people around her. I'm not sure if that helped me understand other people better, but I think it may have helped me understand myself a little better. Get a little more in touch with my emotions about parts of my own life. A little catharsis. And this is not the point, but I think that getting in touch with my own feelings more probably does lead to more empathy for me. I've definitely noticed that when I feel more compassion for myself, I often also notice an increased sense of compassion for others who I perceive similarly.
- sandspar 2y agoA mother cat teaches her kittens to hunt by demonstrating it on a dead mouse. Fiction works the same way: by showing it on a dummy. In real life things are small and overlapped. Fiction makes them big and separate. Once you've seen it big and separate, you can recognize it small and overlapped.
- interludead 2y agoBooks offer a unique window into the lives and minds of others
- nazka 2y agoOh yes. Books like Primo Levi “If This Is a Man” are good to read. Also some can you into deep depression… it’s important to be careful to let the door to your mind opened to anything.