The Fitnah of Islamic Stories

7. Effect of romance novels on girls

This chap is probably going to be more....bursting with information. (So put them serious faces on)

And I didn't edit :) (As usual) so try to make sense of the things that I typed up wrong. I'll edit as soon as I can.

Bismillah hir rahmanir raheem,

Assalamualaikum guys,

So I'm here for the next chapter, and I'm sorry if I rant because I really get on with this topic, but it's about the effects of romance novels on girls.

Before I actually get on with the topic, I thought I'd just mention a quote I found by William Giraldi, a famous writer:

"Romance novels - parochial by definition, ecumenical in ambition - teach a scurvy lesson: enslavement to the passions is a ticket to happiness"

In other words, romance novels are basically all the same in the fact that their narrow scopes wire a useless lesson into the brains of its readers, that submitting to your desires and wants is the way to achieve happiness.

...I actually agree to that.

So now, to the first point I want to make.

- Do romance novels really affect people?

YES!

Even if you want to Islamacise them, that doesn't stop people from being affected by them! Especially teenagers, and I know a lot of wattpad is in their teens.

Maria Nikolajeva, Professor of literature at Cambridge University said at a conference addressing teen reading,

"We don't actually know how literature affects the brain but we know that it does."

"Some new findings have identified spots in the brain that respond to literature and art." 

WHY? - Brain science

Teenage brains process things differently, compared to those more mature and this is something entirely out of their control. You may think, that you're a teenager and you're quite mature but....you're not. It's biological and you can't exactly train yourself to be more mature. It's like puberty, it's out of your hands to decide when it happens.

According to brain imaging, teens are more likely to respond to situations emotionally, and less likely to consider consequences through rational forethought.

(A little extra for those future doctors below, skip if you ain't one)

This is because of our pre-frontal cortex, or PFC. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for reasoning and risk assessment. When you're on top of the Eiffel Tower on a part where there's no railing and you go to the very edge, thinking what would happen if you jump. Well...you would go splat that's what would happen. That's your PFC telling you that.

The thing is, it goes through a growth spurt before puberty, followed by a period of organising and pruning of the neural pathways. 

(Above derived from Karen Coats, English Professor from the Illinois State University  that associates neuroscience with her studies, and paraphrased by ME XD)

Brain scientists at University College in London have conducted brain-based studies on what is happening inside young people's brains as they fall in love. When shown pictures of their boyfriends or girlfriends, four separate areas of their brain became active - two in the cortex and two deeper within the brain. Importantly, the study found that the PFC (prefrontal cortex) - the seat of reason- was inactive.