The Paranormal In Pop Culture Summary

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But how can contemporary literatures be so influential, and even changes people’s ideas, attitudes, and beliefs? According to the article “Mystics and Mutants: The paranormal in pop culture”, which is written by Jeffrey J Kripal, the categories of psychic and the paranormal were coined and forged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by scientists and intellectuals, mostly around Cambridge, Harvard, and later Duke, instead of charlatans or propagators like many people imagined. I think the authoritative of the identities of those creators and supporter makes paranormal be more convincible to the public. In addition to that, Kripal offers that many authors claim that they wrote books based on their own true experience, they even say they …show more content…

It is even used as a powerful tool to change the belief and behavior of the audience by many politicians and religious leaders. In their article “The Influence of Paratext on Narrative Persuasion: Fact, Fiction, or Fake?”, they say stories can be persuasive due to the great relevance of nonfictional incidents to recipients’ real life. But the more surprising thing is they prove that not only the nonfictional, even fiction can influence people’s beliefs largely. Their studies suggest that when the narrative is introduced as nonfiction, it is not more persuasive than when it is introduced as fiction. And the students, the majority object of this study, agreed that fiction they read can change their real-world beliefs. It might because there is still a big difference between fiction and fake story. Just like Harry Potter that I mentioned, although the J. K. Rowling created the characters and stories herself, she still used a lot real-life stuffs as her inspiration sources, which can help the readers find more resonance while reading. According to Markus Appel and Barbara Malecker’s explain, “Fictional stories can achieve high levels of psychological realism—they can depict the inner life of characters and their social relations in a way that enables readers to relate with them and experience identification and empathy” (18). It develops readers’ social abilities and provokes them exploring about personal

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