Matrix
Everyone’s raving about Matrix by Lauren Groff (I mean, this book sure roared in with a bang, right?), and here I am googling “psychology of preference” and scouring an old NPR transcript of an interview with Ira Flatow, Yale professor of psychology and author of How Pleasure Works. (In other words, why we like certain things.)
Matrix is a powerful novel based on the life of 12th-century poet Marie de France, who Groff envisions as a nun and eventual prioress of an abbey. Or as one Goodreads reviewer put it, this is “medieval girlboss fantasia.” This past year, most of the books I’ve read have come from the library so instead of physically marking up what I’m reading, I’ve kept a Word document with interesting quotes and notes from books I’ve read; I’ll point out that notes from Matrix comprise a full page of this 20-page doc. I think any reader would be hard-pressed to criticize the mechanics and prose and thematic execution of this novel. It’s pretty amazing.
But — and this is a question that Very Serious Literary People probably don’t condone — how does a certain book make you feel? Do you *like* it? Back in September, I wrote about Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi. (Btw, this is a Booker finalist that has just been named to the NYT’s “100 Notable Books” list for this year, so maybe it’s a book for you?) I feel the same way about Matrix…like I can’t quite grasp the characters, that they’re sort of “ethereal” or “gauzy.” Or more bluntly, as I wrote about Burnt Sugar: “…as if they were all living out of reach, in a world far from me.” I called it Dissociation Fiction, and now this is the third book (that I can think of, off the top of my head) that I’d put in this category.
So back to the psychology of all this: How come some books impact us, while others pass us by? And how come the person sitting next to you might have the reverse experience? How are “preferences” formed? (I know it’s not as simple as a rubric or something, but who wants to create a worksheet for books like the one in the second slide?)
And yes, if you’re gonna chime in: I will read Fates and Furies, STAT.
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