Empathy is one of the themes that runs through Nectar of Time. Below is everything in the Nectarium that touches on it.
Where it comes up 4
Within this theme 13
Concepts 2
- Fiction as a Tonic for Empathy
Tamir's case that fiction, not just self-help, distills emotions with sincere empathy, and that libraries and novels are portals and time machines where others have already overcome your…
- Reading Fiction Builds Empathy
Tyler cites a study suggesting fiction readers score higher in empathy, because reading is practice in switching places with other people.
Quotes 4
Everybody has it. Everyone's life makes sense to them. That's the thing.
I've called fiction a tonic for empathy. Non-fiction is teaching you things that you don't know; it lives most of the time in the knowledge realm. With fiction specifically, it lives in the emotions.
If you put yourself in that same lens, if someone wrote a story about you, you'd probably be a lot more empathetic towards it.
To me literature is a tonic for empathy. It's something that you can take and all of a sudden feel in ways that you weren't able to feel before.
Insights 6
- Fiction teaches you to value people without status
A narrator who shows you a character's trials makes you respect someone with no Bugatti, six-pack, or partner; extend that to people you rank below you and you realize you're not as low as…
- Greatness includes painting the picture
The poem moves from discovering new land to painting pictures on the walls, showing that greatness spans every archetype, not just conquest; the manosphere's single template reveals a lack…
- Everyone thinks they're the victim
In a falling-out, both sides usually believe they are the victim. That is what makes it an enigma, and what makes getting through it without bitterness such a hard skill.
- Less fiction, less empathy
The breakdown of decorum and empathy may be partly, though not one-to-one, caused by people reading less fiction. Men read less fiction than women in every age group, and that may help…
- Nobody is born a neo-Nazi
To depict extremists honestly you have to show why people join. The path usually starts with self-discovery and legitimately good advice about accountability. The poison only comes later…
- Books keep closed doors open
Every life choice steers you down one track and closes other doors; any book, from the Odyssey to Confessions of a Shopaholic, reintroduces you to worlds you no longer move in.
Stories 1
- Learning Jewish culture through Singer
Growing up in rural Alberta, not raised in any church, Tyler learned about traditional Jewish life from Isaac Bashevis Singer's translated Yiddish stories. When he met Tamir and his Jewish…