Everyday Canvas

On the Value of Fiction

Isn’t it something that what we write sometimes ends up being preachy? But then, when we express our thoughts aren’t we preaching them, anyway?

Still, what I think and write has nothing to do with forcing things into others’ minds or posturing or trying to repair people and situations. I write stuff to put forth what I think and do, which is not always perfect. I found out, if a message needs be given, it is better to conceal it in a story. This is where fiction matters. Whether we are writers and readers, fiction is art and art can be loved, and the art of fiction is loved by many.

Studies on brain and brain scans show that what we read as we are reading it, affects us. Scientists found out that the brain does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life. So when we read, our brain thinks we are experiencing the story, which accounts for our dreaming about what we read, as some of my night dreams involve my daytime reading. Yesterday I read a short fiction in which a young girl was kidnapped. Last night, I dreamt I was searching to find that girl and rescue her. If I told this dream to a psychiatrist without mentioning the story I read, I think, he'd have a ball with my dream, and falsely so.

Another benefit of fiction is giving an opportunity to the reader to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings and exploring their social and emotional life. Sometimes, this may even serve as an exercise for our real-life social skills, as fiction is a useful simulation, just like the weightlessness the astronauts experience in the simulation chamber before taking off into space.

Yet, the true value of fiction is in its aesthetic value as we are given great freedom and imagination while we read. For that reason, reading fiction should be pleasurable first before any literary criticism can be given to a story whether it is inside one’s mind or in print.