how and why people read fiction

Here are a couple of clips from a very interesting NYTimes article on literature, the brain, and evolution:

Some scholars are turning to M.R.I.’s and evolutionary theory to explore how and why people read fiction.

English professors and graduate students . . . say they’re convinced science not only offers unexpected insights into individual texts, but that it may help to answer fundamental questions about literature’s very existence: Why do we read fiction? Why do we care so passionately about nonexistent characters? What underlying mental processes are activated when we read?

...the narrative technique known as “free indirect style,” which mingles the character’s voice with the narrator’s. ... enables readers to inhabit two or even three mind-sets at a time.... became the hallmark of the novel beginning in the 19th century with Jane Austen, because it satisfies our “intense interest in other people’s secret thoughts and motivations"...

Read the whole thing & discuss - I'll be interested to learn what the Brain Pool thinks.