Issue 50: Emotion (Courage) and Queen

We're devoting each newsletter to one of your primal powers. 

 

This week's power is Emotion.

 

Curious which area of human intelligence might help you the most? Take the diagnostic.

Dear First name / friend,

Certain works of art give you courage.

 

Queen's We Will Rock You is one

 

Give a listen if it's been awhile.

The language does the work: evoking a god-like voice that booms with a prophetic message — the titular “we will rock you”— and pulls you in as one of the “we.”

 

It persuades your brain that you are not alone. You're one of a legion whose voices bolster your own.

 

Queen multiplies the effect by bringing your hands and feet into play. Even if you're just driving around and nodding your head, you know the stomp-stomp-clap combo. The motion and reverb help you feel in your body what you're learning in your brain: that you're part of the world's larger, shared heart.

 

That we're all beside and behind you, giving you courage.

 

Here's the clip from Bohemian Rhapsody in which the band puts the song together, considering how to create a shared experience with their audience.

 

Why do we do this exercise? 

So you get better at identifying what you feel and why. 

 

So we have a reference library of literary works to help you alleviate hard feelings when they hit and to flourish by building up stores of positive emotions. 

You can learn more about the narrative technique that grows courage in chapter 1 of Wonderworks.

Missed an issue? They're available in our archive.

 

Next week, Commonsense.

 

In the meantime, Penguin Random House and Goodreads have joined together to gift twenty readers an advanced copy of Primal Intelligence. Enter to win here.