The Joy of Fiction

I know some people who only read worthy books, or self improvement types of things. A few memorable people told me the only book they have ever read is the Bible. That idea gave me nightmares. What a twisted sense of place and value those people must have had. Ancient text is not the same as reading something that reflects on our modern reality and shows its ridiculous parts, the grit and grime of our current life, and the shine of it all.

People who shun fiction as being only for children or worse a corruption, have lost an opportunity to understand others, to fly like a bird, or dragon, and to explore places unseen and previously unimagined. Not only in settings in and around our world, but within ourselves.

Fiction is the perfect vehicle to explore anything too scary to think about in a straight line. Currently lots of people think they have fallen into a dystopian novel, between our race to control a scary virus and the world’s response to the economic repricussions of shutting down. Just as terrifying to some is that the norms for how leaders behave and relate have changed. Long standing alliances have broken and new international tensions have arisen.

Much of that vulnerable feeling is because the rules have shifted, our priorities are constantly at war with what we want in the moment. So we relate it to works of fiction where things seemed upside down. The role of fiction among many others, is to learn how to deal with changes, how to survive trauma, how to cope with grief, how to live with and repair broken relationships and making mistakes. Human beings are very different than other species of beasts. We need to learn how to be, what to think, and how to feel. Fiction is just one of many tools we use to help one another.

What are your thoughts on the role of fiction in your life?