The benefits of reading fiction

[GaryGygax]

I often feel guilty when I read novels or comic books. It's as if I unconsciously feel as if I could be reading/doing something more important with my time. What would qualify as better is beyond me, but the feeling remains.

Does anyone else feel this way? Can you think of benefits to reading fiction besides escapism and entertainment?

[Hodge Backmaker]

http://www.thephora.net/forum/showpo...34&postcount=9

Here are just a few reasons that spring to mind:

1.) Novels can illustrate the nature of humanity, not only in trials which are within the realm of possibility, but in exigencies to which it cannot be exposed. The story may not be possible, but if it could happen, its effects would probably be as the author has described. This can be an edifying experience.

2.) Novelty satisfies the human desire for curiosity. Fictional literature can present all kinds of strange and novel situations, whether realistic or fantastic, to delight the mind.

3.) We identify with the characters. We are put into the place of another person, and feel his joy and grief. It is well known that an object which is of a sad nature can be the source of a very high degree of pleasure because there is a delight in the feeling of sympathy.

4.) We experience a delight in imitation, and the skill of the imitator. Some writers are good at imitating nature, human manners, etc.

5.) Another advantage of fiction over nonfiction is the element of mystery and obsurity. As soon as something is known clearly, it loses much of its power. An author can arouse a stronger feeling of terror by the use of obscurity than he can by a clear and accurate description of the situation. Obscurity is more suited to fictional than nonfictional literature.

6.) Novels abound in beautiful, interesting, and sublime images that delight the mind.

7.) There is a pleasure in the exercise of the imagination.

8.) Fiction is more interesting than today's world, where there is not much really worth doing.

[Tuttle]

I read Gulliver's Travels recently. It had some serious commentary on society and drives the point home better than a non-fiction treatment of the subject.

[GaryGygax]

Originally Posted by Hodge Backmaker

http://www.thephora.net/forum/showpo...34&postcount=9

Interesting points. I'm not sure I entirely agree with some of them, but you've definitely hit on something.

[Uncle Corkscrew]

Reading fiction of a certain time period can help you understand the history and what people thought at that point in time. It gives you a point of view you can't get from a history book. That is why it is extremely dishonest to edit books like Huckleberry Finn.

[Zed]

Yeah, just read something like Live and Let Die, written in 1953. The depiction of niggers would likely get the author thrown in jail these days. Of course, his treatment of women would get him in trouble as well.

"Racism

Reaction to the novel has been mixed. Some critics[who?] have accused Fleming of barely concealed racism and ignorance regarding the general social behaviour of black people in the Caribbean and America, as for instance when he describes a room in Harlem as "the air was thick with smoke and the sweet, feral smell of two hundred Negro bodies"[7]

Fleming uses several instances to go into great detail in describing the physical characteristics of Africans, using the word "purple" to describe those characters with darker skin tone. Fleming uses words like "nigger" or "negress" in reference to black people and, specifically, in reference to Mr. Big, to denote people of passion who think by instinct, in contrast to Bond and other white people, whom Fleming regards as thinking by logic.[citation needed]"

"in Live and Let Die Bond arrives in Harlem to protect America from the Soviets working through the Black Power movement."

[FIPS]

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Santayana said that people were looking for poetic truths. or poesy...I would therefore start with Ruark's "Something of Value".

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[Contra Mundum]

I rather wait for the movie.

[Joe McCarthy]

High literature can help one understand the society in which it takes place, but it is usually inferior to history, and reading it without some familiarity of the history of the period means a lot is missed. Some understanding and study of Russian history is needed before reading Tolstoy, for example.

[Tuttle]

Maybe off topic but the Russian reference made me think of this great movie: