The truth in fiction
It is not uncommon for some people to eschew fiction in favor of nonfiction. They say fiction is just made up, why spend time with something merely imagined, when one could read nonfiction, and learn about the real world, about things that really happened.
Such sentiments, however, miss the fact that the best fiction really is talking about the real world. It is simply real life with the names changed to protect the innocent, real life with the serial numbers filed off.
The best fiction involves us in the lives of characters who struggle with things we can identify with. In following the lives of these fictional characters with interest, we're really asking ourselves, what would I do in that situation? Or, we recognize situations from our own lives, and the empathetic connection is like healing balm.
In reading fiction we're not really reading about other people, we're reading about ourselves.
I write science fiction and fantasy, mostly because I appreciate the wide range of stories that can be told in those worlds. The worst of science fiction, though, forgets to tell us much about who we are. Star Trek is notorious for this. Star Trek would frequently try to bludgeon us over the head with what it is like to be human, oblivious to the fact that telling us that they are going to tell us what it's like to be human is not the same as showing us.
When I write, I have in mind a human story. There may be gee whiz space bangy things involved, but at the core of it, a human being is experiencing something we can identify with. The story I really want to tell is about people do. Science fiction is often called the genre of ideas, and to me that's a pejorative term. Who cares if the story is about what happens to space pencils when zapped with time exploding rays.
It's more important to use fiction as a way to explore who we are, the complicated beings that we are.
Such sentiments, however, miss the fact that the best fiction really is talking about the real world. It is simply real life with the names changed to protect the innocent, real life with the serial numbers filed off.
The best fiction involves us in the lives of characters who struggle with things we can identify with. In following the lives of these fictional characters with interest, we're really asking ourselves, what would I do in that situation? Or, we recognize situations from our own lives, and the empathetic connection is like healing balm.
In reading fiction we're not really reading about other people, we're reading about ourselves.
I write science fiction and fantasy, mostly because I appreciate the wide range of stories that can be told in those worlds. The worst of science fiction, though, forgets to tell us much about who we are. Star Trek is notorious for this. Star Trek would frequently try to bludgeon us over the head with what it is like to be human, oblivious to the fact that telling us that they are going to tell us what it's like to be human is not the same as showing us.
When I write, I have in mind a human story. There may be gee whiz space bangy things involved, but at the core of it, a human being is experiencing something we can identify with. The story I really want to tell is about people do. Science fiction is often called the genre of ideas, and to me that's a pejorative term. Who cares if the story is about what happens to space pencils when zapped with time exploding rays.
It's more important to use fiction as a way to explore who we are, the complicated beings that we are.
3 Comments:
At Wed Aug 17, 11:40:00 PM, johngrif said…
Jeff,
I agree with your argument. It's well put.
I wonder a bit about the history of 'non fiction.' Did such exist b4 the 20c? I think not. Civilizations rose and fell upon the power of the pen and the imagination. So there to all those who worship 'factual' texts. (If you've been to any used book sale, you'll often find any outdated textbook almost impossible to give away. Real tree-killers.)
Here's a bit from a homeschooler Mom worried about the use of fiction:
I sometimes feel like I need justification for reading fiction. Like fiction is just entertainment, and therefore a waste of time, where as non-fiction, informational books are a better use of my time, and therefore justified.
I answered her below. It's a Le Guin quote she liked.
"We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or
imaginary, do and think and feel--or have done and thought and felt;
or might do and think and feel--is an essential guide to our
understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
A person who had never known another human being could not be
introspective any more than a terrier can, or a horse; he might
(improbably) keep himself alive, but he could not know anything about
himself, no matter how long he lived with himself.
And a person who had never listened to nor read a tale
or myth or parable or story, would remain ignorant of his own
emotional and spiritual heights and depths, would not know quite
fully what it is to be human.
For the story--from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace--is one of the
basic tools invented by the mind of man, for the purpose of gaining
understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the
wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.
(From SF as Way of Seeing, Fall 1970)The Language of the Night, essays and speeches of Ursula Le Guin.
Take credit--your thoughts are most similar.
At Thu Aug 18, 01:24:00 AM, johngrif said…
Jeff,
Another past observation containing a good quote about the influence and value of literature:
In reading the fine children’s experts of the past, I have discovered Frances Clarke Sayers, of the UCLA Library School. Here is a quote from her essays, 1937-1961, which are collected in "Summoned by Books."
She says: “(In John Livingston Lowes' On Reading Books) ( I ).. found there the expression of which I needed to say, and could not...He is speaking of the need to read for sheer delight .. to read, as he says, 'for our soul's sake or our spirit's sake.' The words go on '...we are more than intellect, and more than sense, and the deepest- lying springs of life are touched by life alone. And the men who have lived and learned through living, and won through life a wide and luminous view--these men have the imperishable creative power of broadening, deepening, and enhancing life.' The wide and luminous view! Frank Swinnerton gave me that on the night I unpacked my books .. and looking at the shelves again, I saw that shelves of books, in schools, in homes, in libraries, shelves of books are the windows
that frame the 'wide and luminous view.' Lucky the young people who discover this, early in life. And as for us, the librarians, what grace lies in wait for us who point the way. We shall be bothered by books, in all probability, as long as we live. Oh, happy botheration!"
(A 1954 essay entitled 'Happy Botheration', from the section of her essays entitled “Haunted by Books.’)
At Thu Aug 18, 09:33:00 AM, Jeff said…
Oh, some great quotes you've given here. I should say, there are times when I enjoy diving into something like Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler, just for the sake of losing myself in a ripping good yarn. But, in the end, the best fiction is art, and art inspires us to be better than we are.
You've shared some good things from Le Guin. In a way, it's not surprising she would be keenly aware of the relation between ourselves and fiction, because of her anthropology background. She uses it her fiction.
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