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How stories have shaped the world
Mass production and literacy
The era of mass production and mass literacy we have today is the result of the invention of print in northern Europe by Johannes Gutenburg.
Novels didn't have the baggage associated with ancient forms of literature. They allowed new types of authors and readers, especially women who used novels to engage with the most pressing questions of modern society.
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Ancient stories that shaped history
Alexander the Great learned to read and write by studying Homer's Iliad. Thanks to his teacher, the philosopher Aristotle, he had done so with unusual intensity. When Alexander embarked on his conquests, a copy of the Iliad accompanied him.
Homer's Iliad helped to shape an entire society and its ethics. The story revealed the kind of effect moral choices could have on the general public.
The importance of poetry
Chinese literature is based on the Book of Songs, a collection of simple poems that have accrued much interpretation and commentary.
The Book of Songs enshrined poetry as the most important form of literature across East Asia.
Stories shape language
As more and more parts of the world became literate, new technologies such as paper and print increased the reach and influence of written stories. More readers meant new stories started to appear.
When Dante Alighieri wrote his Comedy in the spoken dialect of Tuscany, it helped to turn the dialect into a legitimate language we now call Italian.
Mass production and literacy
The era of mass production and mass literacy we have today is the result of the invention of print in northern Europe by Johannes Gutenburg.
Novels didn't have the baggage associated with ancient forms of literature. They allowed new types of authors and readers, especially women who used novels to engage with the most pressing questions of modern society.
Novels shape ideas
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is at the forefront of what would come to be known as science fiction, revealing the promise of science and its destructive potential.
Similarly, novels were used by emerging countries to assert their independence. Political independence needed cultural independence, and novels proved the best way of gaining it.
Censored literature
The printing press also made it easier to control and censor literature. It became a problem for authors living in regimes such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.
Today, we are living through another revolution in writing technologies. The internet is changing how we read and write, how literature spreads, and who has access to it.
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Our ideas of love
The differences in how people have loved throughout history suggest that our style of loving is to a significant extent determined by what the prevailing environment dictates.
It is through ...
What is lacking in art
... are crucial elements of wisdom, realism and maturity. Our love stories excite us to expect things of love that are neither very possible nor very practical.
We learn to judge ourselves by the hopes and expectations fostered by a misleading artistic medium.
How love stories affect us
Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary (1856) spent her childhood immersed in Romantic fiction. As a result, she’s expecting that her husband will be someone who understands her soul perfectly.
When she does get married to the kind, thoughtful but human. But she is quickly bored by the routines of married life. She is convinced that her life has gone profoundly wrong for one central reason: because it’s so different from what the novels she knows told her it would be.
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Boredom sparks creativity
Boredom is one of the most important factors in creativity. Boredom is a productive state as long as you don't let it get to you.
Agatha Christie said there is nothing like boredom...
Our mind when we're bored
When we're bored, two key things are happening in our minds: One is a 'desire bind' where someone wants to do something but not anything that's on offer. The other is when your mind is itching to be engaged.
Don't fill the void
Our first instinct when we experience some boredom is to fill it with Netflix lists, Instagram feeds, and TikTok videos. Riding out this boredom is vital though.
Boredom is not in itself creative. It's what it leads to that is significant. In the gap of boredom, you're motivated to look for something else, and there's a real chance you'll discover something new.
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The first picnic
The first picnic appeared in Les Charmans effects des barricades (1649), a burlesque satire on the perceived hypocrisy of the Fronde.
The main character, ‘Pique-Nique,’ is a glutt...
The indoor picnic
During the 18th century, picnics became a pastime of the aristocracy and were a purely indoor affair. Attendees were still required to contribute by either bringing a dish, a drink or pay a share of the cost.
Picnics were associated with conversation and wit and seen as intellectual refinement. At a larger gathering, there was also music or dance - similar to a ball or party.
A picnic revolution
After the French Revolution, most aristocratic picnickers fled abroad to Britain and introduced the picnic to England. This led to a less refined and more raucous picnic, thanks to a 'Pic Nic Society,' founded by wealthy young Francophiles. Every member was required to bring a dish and six bottles of wine. Dinner was followed by singing, dancing, and gambling.
Picnics were also taken up by the emergent middle classes and moved outdoors. The result that picnicking ceased to be associated with music and dancing and became a simple meal. It became calmer and more innocent.
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