Why Fiction Matters
robparnell
There are some
strange folks out there who don’t like fiction. Or rather, they don’t
understand its purpose.
Robert Mitchum--otherwise an actor I greatly admire--said he never
read fiction because it wasn’t true, so there was no point.
To any budding
novelist this attitude is as heinous as it is incomprehensible. Unfortunately
it is also surprisingly common.
My father for one
thinks that novels are too hard to follow so he never bothers with them.
‘If it’s any good,
they’ll make a movie out of it,’ is one of his favorite lines.
How many times have
you heard this?
The implication here
is obvious. To non-readers, it’s not the writing that’s important. It’s the
story.
Whilst great writing
might profoundly impress you or I, most people just
want the message, rather than the medium.
People like stories
for 4 main reasons:
1. Entertainment
2. Enlightenment
3. Validation
4. To gain hope & salvation
These reasons have
been the ‘point’ of telling and listening to stories since the beginning of
time.
As a species, we
need them.
They divert our
attention from the mundane and take us out of ourselves for a while.
They can show us
things we didn’t know about ourselves and others. We may gain valuable new
perspectives to help us to better understand our neighbors, foreigners, even
our enemies.
We need stories to
make us feel better about ourselves--as human beings, as well as personalities.
That’s why we like to identify with heroes and
warriors--indeed, anyone who can show us how to overcome obstacles.
Finally we need
stories to help us make sense of life and the world around us.
In real life, there
are no beginnings and endings, just infinite sequences.
You know how it is.
You listen to the news. Everything is a segment, a teaser, a sample of every
day life. Nothing makes sense because there’s no structure.
Without the confines
that fiction offers us, we are drowning in a bewildering sea of actions and
feelings and urges with no meaning.
Stories ‘frame’ real
life into manageable chunks that have tangibility, involvement and purpose,
whether for us individually or as a race.
Surely that’s what
we were placed on this earth to do!
To make sense of who we are and why we are here.
THAT'S why fiction
matters!
2003 robparnell