Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions In The History Of Literature

  • Author: Angus Fletcher
  • Narrator: Jacques Roy
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 15:11:18
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Synopsis

A brilliant examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, that shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs—rivaling any scientific inventions—and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.

Literature is a technology like any other. And the writers we revere—from Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, and others—each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literature’s great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all.

Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most powerful developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief, trauma, loneliness, anxiety, numbness, depression, pessimism, and ennui—all while sparking creativity, courage, love, empathy, hope, joy, and positive change. They can be found all throughout literature—from ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeare’s plays, poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and crime novels to slave narratives.

An easy-to-understand exploration of the new literary field of story science, Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class. Based on author Angus Fletcher’s own research, it is an eye-opening and thought-provoking work that offers us a new understanding of the power of literature.

Chapters

  • 021 Wonderworks Chapter16 ClearYourHead

    Duration: 21min
  • 022 Wonderworks Chapter17 FindPeaceOfMind

    Duration: 49min
  • 023 Wonderworks Chapter18 FeedYourCreativity

    Duration: 29min
  • 024 Wonderworks Chapter19 UnlockSalvation

    Duration: 32min
  • 025 Wonderworks Chapter20 RenewYourFuture

    Duration: 22min
  • 026 Wonderworks Chapter21 DecideWiser

    Duration: 36min
  • 027 Wonderworks Chapter22 BelieveInYourself

    Duration: 30min
  • 028 Wonderworks Chapter23 UnfreezeYourHeart

    Duration: 28min
  • 029 Wonderworks Chapter24 LiveYourDream

    Duration: 30min
  • 030 Wonderworks Chapter25 LessenYourLonely

    Duration: 47min
  • 031 Wonderworks Conclusion InventingTomorrow

    Duration: 05min
  • 032 Wonderworks Coda TheSecretHistoryOfThisBook

    Duration: 22min
  • 033 Wonderworks OUT

    Duration: 28s
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