If you have any desire to understand what life is about or if you want to come to terms with why you suffer, or why the world makes so little sense then you must read fiction. Many people who I know who read, read non-fiction work exclusively. They suffer from the misconception that there is more valuable information in non-fiction books, especially business and self-help books than than there is in novels.
They’re wrong. Novels have more to teach us about living, rebelling, and thinking for ourselves than any self-help book.
After reading this you will go to a bookshop and buy yourself a good novel.
The rational vs. the emotional
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
A Nelson Mandela misquote
I always loved this quote. I was heartbroken to learn that Mandela never actually said or wrote those words. Not that it matters. The quote is powerful because it is true, not because so-and-so said it.
The language you understand, but that doesn’t sing to you, or hold any memories for you, will only ever speak to the rational part of your mind. While the language of your childhood, the language that helped carve your identity, in which you can be sarcastic, in which you can woo a partner; that is the language your heart knows. It’s that language that unlocks you and allows you to hear, believe and to know.
And the same can be said of fiction and non-fiction works. Non-fiction is rational. A self-help book or a psychology book can help you intellectually understand why you have bad habits and what you might be able to do about changing them. A story can help you understand what it is to be a better person.
To put it another way; non-fiction can help you understand why humans fall in love. It can explain what we find attractive in a mate, describe and name the chemicals that react in our brains, help us understand how love helps our species procreate. But it takes a story to help you feel what it is like to fall in love.
The power of fiction
The secret of fiction is that the rational parts of our brains don’t engage in filtering the validity of a story. When we read a novel we want the story to transport us to another world. And in order for this to be successful, and for us to get the most enjoyment from reading a novel, we have to suspend reality, suppress the questioning and rational parts of our brains and allow the story to become real for us. And, it is in turning off the rational parts of our brains that novels end up teaching us, in most cases without us even knowing.
Think about it; a book that describes the intricacies of sexual intercourse can make sex sound unpleasant, strange and a bit icky. However, a well written sex scene can get a reader to feel a warm glow in their nether regions (it took me 15 minutes to come up with that one – which is still better than saying it’ll make you horny – or is it?).
Reading non-fiction is acquiring knowledge while reading fiction imparts wisdom.
What the fuck are you talking about, Gerrit?
Stories have been how humans have passed on cultural knowledge and wisdom through time. Common stories bond people into communities. Stories are the vehicles for culture, and they’re a way for us to understand the world. The Greeks had their tragedies to teach them. These were plays based on Greek myths. The stories were mimetic, they imitated reality and the world the audience lived in. And in watching a tragedy the audience experienced catharsis. Catharsis the process by which people release strong or repressed emotions. I picture women and men in togas going to the theatre and everyone having a good cry, after which they all felt much better and went home. For all we know togas were nothing more than really big tissues.
Since the 18th Century Russian literature forged a sense of national identity amongst its people. Before the downfall of the USSR, Russians prided themselves of their literary canon, seeing it as a reflection of their society and their views on life. Even during the Soviet era the Russian state used literature to give people alternatives to the existentialist vacuum left by the banning of religion and long accepted cultural norms.
So, to answer your WTF question, what I’m talking about is the real power of fiction to influence, teach and console people.
Burning and banning books
Consider the fact that oppressive governments have this thing about banning or burning books. Regimes have known for centuries that books and stories have the power to inspire people think independently, rebelliously – for themselves. Fiction works can impart ways of thinking that make regimes nervous. When you go through this list of banned and burned books through history, you’ll come to realise that those in power genuinely saw literature as a real threat to their institutions.
That said, when you go through the list you’ll be tempted to deride the people that banned these books. It’s easy to dismiss them as ignorant and stupid. But it is worth stopping yourself when you have these thoughts because, by criticising the people who banned and burned, you overlook the truth that the literature that scared the authorities posed real threats. They were powerful. These books were and are genuinely subversive and capable of inspiring revolt.
We’ve forgotten the power of stories
We have been brainwashed into thinking that fiction is there to entertain while non-fiction makes us smarter and teaches us how to lead good, successful lives. This belief is misguided. Works of fiction can guide us through suffering, can help us understand if we are good people, can teach us what love is, can help us be more compassionate.
If you need proof, an overwhelming number of philosophers have turned to fiction to bring their philosophies to life. To name a few:
- Thomas More
- Voltaire
- Jean-Jacques Rosseau
- Goethe
- Milan Kundera
- Aldous Huxley
- Kierkegaard
- Nietzche
- Beckett
- Sartre
- de Beauvoir
- Philip K. Dick
- Camus
General James Mattis said, and I’m paraphrasing; if you don’t read, you are functionally illiterate.
I’d add to that; and if you don’t read fiction, you are obsequious.