Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T04:04:42.101Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How granular should our explanations of fantastic fiction be?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Oleg Sobchuk*
Affiliation:
Minds and Traditions Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany [email protected]://www.shh.mpg.de/person/98794/25522

Abstract

Explaining the reasons behind the success of various kinds of fiction is important, but how granular should our explanations be? I suggest that using a less granular, more general hypothesis would allow avoiding some pitfalls, such as using the concept of “imaginary world,” which eludes precise definitions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berger, J., & Packard, G. (2018). Are atypical things more popular? Psychological Science, 29(7), 11781184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berlyne, D. E. (1970). Novelty, complexity, and hedonic value. Perception & Psychophysics, 8, 279286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, B. (2009). On the origin of stories: Evolution, cognition, and fiction. Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J. (2011). Reading human nature: Literary Darwinism in theory and practice. State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Morin, O., Acerbi, A., & Sobchuk, O. (2019). Why people die in novels: Testing the ordeal simulation hypothesis. Palgrave Communications, 5, 62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silvia, P. J. (2006). Exploring the psychology of interest. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobchuk, O. (2018). Charting artistic evolution: An essay in theory. University of Tartu Press.Google Scholar
Tran, N. H., Waring, T., Atmaca, S., & Beheim, B. A. (2021). Entropy trade-offs in artistic design: A case study of Tamil kolam. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 3, e23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yucesoy, B., Wang, X., Huang, J., & Barabási, A.-L. (2018). Success in books: A big data approach to bestsellers. EPJ Data Science, 7, 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar