Can someone explain to me why reading fiction is so important?
I'm not condemning it. If you enjoy it, go ahead, I'm not here to shit on your fun.
I'm the kind of autistic though that only enjoys reading non-fiction. Every time I say this to my friends or family the response is either
>But non-fiction is boring!
>But you have to read more fiction anon
No one has ever given me a proper answer. So I hope my friends here at /lit/ can enlighten me.
There is no reason why reading fiction is important. The whole it gives you empathy reason is bullshit and used by autistic shut-ins to feel superior for feeling emotions to a fictional character that they would never with a real person. And given this board is filled with raging retards who live for shitflinging, the empathy discourse is even more bullshit on a stupid board like this, despite no one on this board actually reading.
Either it's fun or it's not. There is no intrinsic worth to reading fiction. It's a waste of time either way.
>>7733617
Your life is a fictional tale and you and me learn from the characters inside it. That is why you learn more about your real life from reading fiction than any biology textbook, at least good fiction that is.
>>7733815
That makes no sense.
>>7733825
Ok. Let me say it with Shakespeare then and if you still don't get it, perhaps you should stick to reading textbooks.
"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
It was all a Dream.
Because in western culture no medium has freedom from rationalism to explore the human condition but literature and art.
How do people place such importance on whether or not something is fiction?
If I'm looking for entertainment, I'll read fiction.
If I happen to be reading fiction that isn't Koontz tier, I'll go into it expecting to see something deeper than "all along, the real monster was Man".
If I'm looking to learn or expand my horizons, I'll find the appropriate non-fiction.
Why do people make things so complicated?
>>7733600
Reading good fiction is one of the only legitimate ways to "get outside yourself" these days. You don't just get empathy from reading about people, you're also introduced to different perspectives you would never get from anywhere else.
Also there are just great and unique pleasures that come out of reading a great novel or short story and it's a shame that you're not allowing yourself to feel them.
>>7733846
For the /lit/ bantz.
>>7733844
Not just this, but fiction can provide a conceptual territory that provides an excuse to examine things that are politically or socially taboo. An example is discussing Zeus banging every >7/10 bitch in the vicinity, as a way of talking around that asshole Fred in real estate who creeps on 16 year old girls.
>>7733896
I should have headed my post with "In addition to this", instead of "Not just this".
>>7733896
Is Zeus not allowed to enjoy that which he rules over?
Fiction is the laboratory for real life. I feel that reading as much fiction (good fiction) as I have has almost given me super powers. I can empathize with and understand people far more than most people, I can express myself far more clearly and more articulately than almost anyone I know, and it has made me a calmer and more collected person.
If you want a definite practical advantage to reading fiction it will no joke turn you into a star at your career because you can communicate and understand others better than anybody else. There's no line of work where that isn't ultimately the most important skill to have.
I recommend you read a book called "The existential pleasures of Engineering" by Samuel Florman.
Both are important. You should read whatever you like.
Fiction is important because it can help you learn about yourself. I would say studying fiction is similar to other humanities like philosophy and history. It is akin to practicing a religion or going on a walk to think to yourself.
I also like studying things like computer science, discrete mathematics, or physics. I believe that the laws of nature and logic intersect in many places with the personal reasoning and thoughts that are developed from the humanities. This is why I feel a well-rounded education is so important.
>>7733910
But he doesn't rule over all. Poseidon (stronger but less aggressive beta male) and Hades (wallowy zeta male who browses 4chan) get in his shit all the time.
>>7733815
This guy is spot fucking on. Your life is a story you are creating and if you want to make it a good one you have to understand how stories work.
Every successful person has succeeded by turning themselves into a character, by becoming a persona. You think Shakespeare, Bacon, Nietzsche, Joyce, Hemingway, Feynman, Jobs, or Obama were just born that way? No, they decided what kind of character they wanted their story to be about and they made it happen.
>>7733600
There is no such thing as non-fiction. Non-fiction is fiction with the deceit of authenticity and realism of the real world. It has characters and plot like any other fiction, which is perceived, interpreted, and arranged through a creative writer.
The benefit of what is traditionally called "fiction," or more specifically the exemplary literary works, is that they allow you to come to see the world in a way you have not before. They open up capacity, not only for empathy, which most writing does, but for philosophical contemplation and emotion in general. "Non-fiction" is the narrative of so-and-so or a group who 'really existed and did this' TM. "Fiction" is not limited by the constraint of having 'really happened' and so is much more capable at pushing the boundaries of what is thought and understood in its time.
Read Percy Shelley's "A Defense of Poetry." His defense of a poet and poetry applies in most ways to what you call "fiction."
>>7733933
But he's the God of Gods. Sure his subjects make him eat dirt here and there, but ultimately, they answer to him.
>>7733600
Fiction is art.
Besides, it not like non-fiction is 100% truth. Dialogs get made up, things are omitted, parts embelished. It's like a poor man's fiction.
>>7733949
Only in a matter of semantics. Zeus orchestrated the death of Cronus. Poseidon is the more naturally stronger of the two, but Zeus has artificial bolts and lives in the sky. Ultimately, a battle between the two, if each remained in their respective realms, would be a stalemate.
You should read some good fiction just like you should listen to some good music.
>>7733600
Dear anon, you have bigger problems than fiction vs non-fiction, like listening to people what you should or should not read. Please make up your own mind yourself and show some conviction.
Also /lit/ is not your friend. It's a place you come to mentally masturbate. You wouldn't masturbate in front of your friend would you now?
Read Labyrinths by Borges followed by As I Lay Dying and you'll understand the potential of fiction.
>>7733970
This, all storytelling is fiction. Some are just more honest about that than others.
>>7733971
Perhaps but then how does Fred fit into all of this?
Reading literary fiction and poetry honestly makes you a more intelligent person. It's currently a meme, especially in the fields of science and mathematics, to equate the reading of literature with other forms of entertainment, but literature, if properly understood, does honestly expand your mind and make you a better person.
>>7733600
Because the ideological history of human existence isn't limited to material reality.
Because every mind qua other minds is essentially an entire new reality that isn't manifest in the material world.
Because all fiction is no less "real" than non-fiction in the sense that they're both transcendentally subjective.
Not OP, but honestly these answers are much more well thought out than I expected them to be when I opened this thread
non- fiction isn't boring I don't know what all those people are talking about. I guess I am also one of the strange people. And fiction can be non-boring sometimes like that Shakespeare bit about a man living life in seven stages. Kinda speaks to the psychology/sociology of man, I would read a psychology book for the same reason I would read that poem.
