Jessica Love writes for The American Scholar about some recent psychological studies on the art and perspective of storytelling. Of particular interest is the way “the first person does seem to encourage us to identify with the narrator, especially when that narrator is a lot like us.” Not that identifying with narrators is the primary purpose of reading, as the New Yorker reminds us in a piece against “relatability,” but it’s something to consider the next time you pick up a novel and find a character who seems to be just like you.
Identifying in the First Person
What Millions Readers Are Reading (Vol. 1)
We asked about the books you're currently reading. You answered.
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Why Write Memoir? Two Debut Authors Weigh In
"It was hard on many levels, and I had to keep going back to why I was writing in the first place."
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“You Can Almost Hear the Ghosts”:
Valeria Luiselli on Juan Rulfo
"Rulfo travels in time and space with an absolute freedom without us getting lost."
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Several Attempts at Understanding Percival Everett
I knew from the dozens of other interviews I had read with him that Everett doesn’t love doing press. “I wonder why?” he joked to me.
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Kate Briggs Isn’t Trying to Be Original
"I’ve never been interested in making a claim to originality."
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