Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch –– could make you smarter.
According to research by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia, exposure to the surrealism in, say, Kafka’s “The Country Doctor” or Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning functions. The researchers’ findings appear in an article published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science.
“The idea is that when you’re exposed to a meaning threat –– something that fundamentally does not make sense –– your brain is going to respond by looking for some other kind of structure within your environment,” said Travis Proulx, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB and co-author of the article. “And, it turns out, that structure can be completely unrelated to the meaning threat.”
Science Daily (thanks, Tiram)
Derren’s portrait of Kafka, show above, is also now available from the art store.
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Can only be expected. It allows for more objectivity as well.
Being open to accepting when you are wrong about things makes you smarter
Ehehehe …. that’s absurd, too much overreasoning for sure. There is no standard in humans.
I do have to say, never having read Kafka (culture barbar), that people who have read Kafka always speak weird about him, as if they didn’t get him. And they seem to put him on a pedestal. Which is not really my way of seeing upon people, and which would only enhance me at time to investigate the poor bloke a bit more upclose (did not need to do that with those who put him on a pedestal anymore for obvious reasons).
I’m sure that I would never need to upon Kafka like they wish to see it in this ‘article’. Threats and such … ehehehe …
Another thing, which those psychologists did not see into yet. Is age, and character, not all people respond the same way too a book, nor does a person respond the same way to a book every time he/she reads in it. Why are you reading the book? Also not all without importance. What is your aim? Those are of major importance, and make analyzing by others of those readers almost impossible, if you don’t know them in person. People can not be defnied that easily.
Why/when/how a writer wrote his book , also not all without importance.Age and character, lots of stuff that can be poluting any type of analysis. If you had seen the inside of them. .
just couldnt get into The Castle. everyone harps on about kafka so whats a good one to get going with?
Blimey! Sound familiar, guys?!
I’ve always felt that way about David Lynch’s work. Whenever I watch something like Twin Peaks I have to keep a notepad handy as it puts me in a massively creative state of mind; ideas come, not necessarily related, but always compelling and original. I find thatmost good surrealist art can create a similar mental state
Sounds interesting and plausible! I would start with Metamorphosis and if you don’t like that, you probably won’t like much else of his work. Short stories such as the Judgment and In the Penal Colony are fairly easy going. However i think you need to be interested in the subject of morality in general to really enjoy anything by him.
so it works the same as dealing with psychic phenomena?
Very interesting! And beautiful portrait too.
Anything, no matter what it is, if it makes you think more, is always a good thing.
LC x
have to read some of his work before my exam!!