I started to think about this when I texted a friend of mine, “Do you think your love of horror/apocalypse suggests a hesitation in yourself that drastic change leads to the loss of everything you love?”
Turns out what we love and why we love it WAY deeper than that! Neil Gaiman wrote: “Fairy tales are more than true: Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
If you think about it, ALL fiction is fairy tale. By definition, a fairy tale is “…any far-fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true. Legends are perceived as real; fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, fairy tales usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and to actual places, people, and events; they take place ‘once upon a time’ rather than in actual times.”
The links below will take you to articles from WILDLY varying sources (WIRED, Mike Duran (a Christian writer and commentator), the BBC, NPR, Bookriot, All Women’s Talk, and Unflitered) – yet after reading them, I find they have some surprising things in common.
In general it seems, we read fiction to escape/for fun; to stretch our imagination; explore scary concepts and issues from a distance; see that when the lives and hearts of characters are broken they can be put back together; how to arm ourselves against a horrible world; to be empowered; be transported; and anchor us with its strong sense of place.
Let me look at each one briefly and a bit closer.
Escape and for fun: OK, this will be really brief because it’s self-explanatory!
To stretch our imagination: The book I’m reading now is a horror/apocalypse and it HAS stretched my imagination. People who read as well as watching TV/movies, are more interesting to talk to than people who don’t. As well, they MAY be more interested in thinking outside the box.
We can explore scary concepts and issues: We can think of the most horrific situation BEFORE we have to face it. There are times I wished that I’d read more novels where breast cancer and Alzheimer’s were an integral PART of the story. I don’t mean novels written to “deal with” those things, but novels in which dealing with debilitating or uncontrollable disease or conditions was part of the plot and showed possible ways to deal with it…
When people’s hearts are broken they CAN be healed: that is something that the novels in Lois McMaster Bujold’s VORKOSIGAN series has illustrated. He is physically handicapped, and he DWELLS on it much of the time. But, he does manage to break free with lots of effort.
The next two do well together: Fiction can help us arm ourselves against a horrible world and to be empowered when we face that real, horrible world. Lisa Cron, who has worked in publishing, as an agent, a producer on TV shows, a story consultant, a university instructor, and an author of several best-selling books, has said what I quote above: “We’re wired to turn to story to teach us the way of the world.”
Reading in your chosen genre also gives you an anchor with its strong sense of place. I started reading science fiction when I was in sixth grade. I will tell you honestly here, that my 6th through 9th grade years were truly miserable. I hated myself, hated how I looked, hated what I felt, hated how I was treated (even in my family at times, but absolutely by almost every kid around me). There was nowhere to turn but to story. Once I had an anchor, I was finally able to sail safely out of the harbor that it created. I went from LOATHING school, to becoming a teacher myself – and eventually becoming a counselor. I got the following comment from a former student of mine on the anniversary of my birth day: “Happy birthday!!! Stew stew!!! You are the reason I am such a powerful being today. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Cooper and AEF…” It would have been impossible for me to imagine that back then. But today, it made me feel warm all over – but NOT think it was only a dream. Reading changed me.
Reading – and it doesn’t matter much WHICH genre we choose – allows us to be transported beyond the “regular” world in a way that movies and TV can’t match. Watching TV, by definition is passive. Watching doesn’t require you to DO anything. You don’t even need to think – witness those people who leave their television on all day long without looking at it. It’s noise and very ignorable. When you read something you CHOOSE to read, you can’t read and cook supper. You can’t read and mow the lawn. You can’t even read and sleep at the same time. READING is an action verb. At its very best, watching is a weak action verb and doesn’t require us to do anything – at the very most – but react to what we see. Engagement is minor; and the importance of imagination is best left suppressed because the people who create TV and movies DEMAND that you have no input into what they are presenting. In fact, if you ADD something to what you’re watching…well it’s not even possible. When you watch, someone pours story, plot, image, set, character identity and appearance; into you.When you read, you pour yourself into the fiction. At its very best, your favorite piece of fiction can anchor us with its strong sense of place. The writer spends thousands of hours creating a world, then inviting you into – at the same time knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that the world you create in your head will be DIFFERENT than the one they created in their writing. An example, when I do presentations to young people on writing, I ask them, “Where is Harry Potter’s scar?”
Every one of them can tell me exactly where it is.
Then I say, “Can you tell me exactly where JK Rowling tells you where the scar is?”
They can’t, because she DOESN’T! (As some of you won’t believe me, when you think you’ve found the passage where she tells EXACTLY where Voldemort’s scar on Harry is. Please email me the book, chapter, and paragraph of the description.)
*tapping foot patiently*
I’m waiting…
At any rate, I’ll leave you with this: “How can you dream big if you have no imagination? How can you strive beyond the everyday if you have no idea what the fantastical might look like? If you’ve never seen a hero embark on a quest for the impossible—and achieve it, where will you find the courage to try? If no one has ever told you stories of someone reaching for the unreachable, how will you ever know to reach for the stars? Or the moon? Or even past your current socio-economic circumstance?...How can you empathize with someone, if you can’t imagine what they must be feeling?”
How indeed – except by reading your choice of genre – science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, mystery, in fact ANY piece of fiction, you find that, “Put simply…[fiction] allows us to believe that we could all be [the one] who outsmarts the arrogant…though we have less formal experience and neither look nor dress the part… a silly notion, until you consider that a teenager in a hoodie created the largest social network in the world, and a research chemist and mother of two became an ‘Iron Lady’ and the most powerful woman in the world…”
References: https://www.mikeduran.com/2012/02/27/what-genres-do-you-refuse-to-read-and-why-you-shouldnt-refuse-to-read-them/
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200506-the-books-that-might-flourish-in-this-time-of-crisis
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/05/635052036/reading-horror-can-arm-us-against-a-horrifying-world
https://bookriot.com/why-women-read-romance-novels/#:~:text=Women%20read%20romance%20novels%20because%20they're%20in%20a%20relationship,through%20the%20pangs%20of%20love.&text=And%20occasionally%20keep%20a%20running%20commentary%20on%20their%20relationship.
https://www.wired.com/2010/09/why-fantasy-matters/
https://books.allwomenstalk.com/important-reasons-to-read-science-fiction-novels/
http://unfiltered.groupsjr.com/mysteries-trash-many-people-love/
Image: https://bookviralreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Literary-Fiction.jpg
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