Instead of mental file think flight simulator. Stories provide fabricated realms in which we shadow characters whose experiences far outstrip our own. Through borrowed eyes protected by the tempered glass of story, we intimately observe an abundance of exotic worlds. And it is through these simulated episodes that our intuition expands and refines, rendering it sharper and more flexible. When faced with the unfamiliar, we don’t initiate cognitive look-ups that search a Dear Abby of the mind. Instead, through story we internalize a more nuanced sense of how to respond and why, and that
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