Separating fact from fiction: does reading really make us smarter?

/

Contributed Image

 

โ€œI wish I read more.โ€ – Everyoneย 

I spent the bulk of this past weekend reading through a recent bestseller. Despite being steeped in historical, artistic and architectural facts, it was not what would commonly be considered an enriching, thoughtful novel.

It was a vapid, blunt yarn. It was a shallow, derivative adventure story.

It was the latest Dan Brown novel,ย Origin.

This story, the fifth in Brownโ€™s โ€œRobert Langdonโ€ series, outsold every other hardcover in the past week, including multiple debuts. That means that thoughtful, creative, brand-new tomes released by esteemed historians like Walter Isaacson sold fewer copies this week on their release than an adventure novel that came out nearly a month ago, on Oct. 3.

We, as aย society, tend to associate books with intelligence. We connote the consumption of the written word with the value of being โ€˜smarter,โ€™ย the same way that past generations have attributed deficient eyesight with the same feature.

Obviously, there are books that can make us smarter. We learn from textbooks and biographies about all sorts of things in our world. Books are multivalent sources of knowledge and entertainment, history and adventure.

But itโ€™s the way that weย esteemย these things that raises questions. Theyโ€™re bound bundles of words, yet we perceive them as essential, cultural vessels of brilliance. You carry a copy of James Joyceโ€™sย Ulyssesย under your arm, and people will perceiveย in you a sort of intelligence โ€“ or maybe just pretentiousness โ€“ย that has almost nothing to do with the ability to run your eyes across a page and consumeย words. In the modern world, reading is a mandatory skill that is programmed into children at very young ages.

Simplyย put, is non-fiction more valuable than fiction? Does it make you smarter?

โ€œNo,โ€ Mandyย Brouse, one of the co-owners of Words Worth Books in Waterloo, said. โ€œI think that reading itself is the extreme value.โ€

โ€œI guess thereโ€™s many different types of intelligence, and thereโ€™s definitely a lot of academic studies that have been done on reading and the benefits of readingย โ€“ย ranging anywhere from your traditional IQ testing to emotional intelligence and what that means,โ€ย Brouseย continued.

โ€œSo we do have academic studies that back those claims up. But I also think that, from my own experience, reading books growing up, and with my own academic background, I feel that reading is probably one of the bigger reasons why I am the person I am today,โ€ she stated.ย โ€œI think reading is one of the most important activities I have in my life.โ€

โ€œThe most important books are the ones that are the exact right books to put inย peopleโ€™sย hands, that they need at the time,โ€ย she added.

While ploughing throughย Harry Potter & the Philosopherโ€™s Stoneย isnโ€™t likely to turn someone into a scholar, there are values that are associated with the simple practice of reading itself. And there are communities that grow out of the simple engagement with it, even with aspiring writers themselves.

I spoke with Vanessa Ricci-Thode,ย president of the Canadian Authorโ€™s Association Waterloo-Wellington Branch. On top of this role, she is also the Municipal Liaison forย NaNoWriMoย in Kitchener-Waterloo, an international event where authorsย โ€“ย aspiring and acclaimedย โ€“ย attempt to write the first draft of an entire novel within the month of November.

As someone who has been heavily involved in working with and encouraging writers, Ricci-Thodeย had a bit of insight into theย importance of theย written word:

โ€œStories are important,โ€ she said. โ€œThey teach us about the world, they teach us about each other. Even fiction, thereโ€™s a lot you can learn in fiction and I think thereโ€™s a lot of value in it because of that.โ€

โ€œFiction specifically allows you to play with reality a little bit and get out stories that you wouldnโ€™t normally hear. It gives you the chance to see through other peoplesโ€™ eyes and to walk through otherย peopleโ€™sย shoes. I think itโ€™s really valuable to cultivate empathy.โ€

This value relates deeply to something elseย Brouseย brought up: an organization she has become involved with launching in Waterlooย focusedย on the more therapeutic, healthful aspects of reading:

โ€œShelf Life is a series of workshops that is on the topic of creativeย bibliotherapy,โ€ย Brouseย said. โ€œWhich is something that has only been active in and around Toronto and the UK. And itโ€™s something that Iโ€™m hoping to bring more into Waterloo.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s essentially using books and readings from books in a way that facilitates a group therapy situationย โ€“ย but involving fiction and non-fiction. It touches upon a lot of the existential feelings that many people have,โ€ย Brouseย added.ย โ€œIt talks about the universalizing feelings of, say, grief or fear, anxiety; stuff weโ€™ve all experienced at one point in our lives.โ€

This is done through workshops that have run in Waterloo at the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre, with the next scheduled for Nov.ย 6.

โ€œThis particularย series that weโ€™re in right now is on the topic of fear and the resiliency that can come about when we have experiences of fear in our lives,ย and the tools that we can useย โ€“ย and the tools coming from books, fiction, essays, non-fiction, poetry. That kind of that thing,โ€ย Brouseย said.

โ€œAndย [not just]ย what authors have to teach us about that, but also what each of us have to tell each other about those topics and how fear has impacted our individual livesย โ€“ย and how that might be universalized in a group therapy situation.โ€

Whether or not intelligence is based on the amount that one person reads, a person can become smarter in one way or another by reading. In case that was your purpose in reading this article, I asked my interviewees specifically their recommended โ€˜smarteningโ€™ titles in fiction.

For Ricci-Thode, it was about imbibing an example and an understanding through characters and stories.

โ€œFor me, I tend to readย โ€“ย in fictionย โ€“ย I read mostly science fiction and fantasy. And the book that I would recommend right now is calledย The Fifth Seasonย by N.K.ย Jemisin. Itโ€™s a really smart book.โ€

And what makes it smart?

โ€œThe way it really explores human nature. Itโ€™s an apocalyptic novel but itโ€™s a very hopeful book and it just really gets into human nature, human psychologyย โ€“ย some of the ugly things that we do but some of the really beautiful things that people do as well.โ€

When asked,ย Brouseย had a different kind of answer, reflecting on how the format can be used to convey theories and ideas more overtly amongst the stories themselves. Her pick wasย The Course of Loveย by Alain de Botton.

โ€œHe is a philosopher. But he has gone into the foray of fiction here. And what it is, itโ€™s a story that is fictionalizedย โ€“ย about a couple going through a breakup and trying to understand their marriageย โ€“ย butย [itโ€™s]ย very practical; a lot of people would recognize a lot of aspects of themselves,โ€ย Brouseย admitted.

โ€œThen the narrator himself breaks in with some of these philosophical reflections on the nature of love and relationships,โ€ she said.

โ€œNot in this pristine, objective, standoffish kind of wayย โ€“ย but in a real way with real insight. And so I thought it was a really good book at the time.โ€

Books may or may not make us intelligent, but there are certainly productive factors associated with reading in the modern world.

With such an unavoidable interconnectedness in this world, and such synergy between technologies that actuallyย encourageย us to scroll through our Twitter feeds while we watch television, the ability to switch off and focus on one thing can help to improve our concentration and our patience.

Thereโ€™s a reason why we all wish that we read more, and thatโ€™s because we all strive to be better than we are by pouring ourย heartsย into pursuits that develop other, unexplored components of ourselves.

Where we lack in empathy, in understanding, in patience, we want to expand.

Intelligence is not simply understanding economics, or math, or the sciences. Intelligence is comprised of our rounded perceptions, our grasp of languageย โ€“ย every prescriptive component that we can apply to ourselves and our lives.

Just like a book, intelligence can be one of a thousand different things.

You may not become smarter by reading, especially by reading fiction. Butย โ€“ย putย simplyย โ€“ย you may become better.ย 


Leave a Reply

Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. Weโ€™re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.