I'm looking for people to share their thoughts (or memorable books, articles, quotes, etc) on why consuming fiction has value. In my gut it feels valuable, I love fiction and consume a lot of it, but I find it hard to articulate why! Note: if you're the sort of person who doesn't like these sort of navel gazey posts, really not looking for "just enjoy it, whatever, chill out" type answers!
Really just what it says on the tin. I love stories. I love consuming fiction. And I realize, you know, that's "enough" in some senses. But there are a million things a person can do with their time...learn a language! Play the piano! Read a book!
The goal here is not really to "defend" consuming stories as a use of time, really...it's more that I have long felt like fiction is significant, but I don't really know why I feel that way, and so I'm curious how other people look at it. I realize "people should do what they like," and so if someone doesn't like to read, that's fine, if they do like to read, that's fine. Still, I'm curious what the "value" of fiction is to y'all. Is it just pure escapism? Enrichment of the human spirit? Enhanced empathy? And so on. I'm just trying to see if I can find words that might give voice to that feeling inside of me that so strongly feels like stories are significant, when in many respects many voices around might say that they have zero value (compared to learning an instrument or making an app or doing whatever thing).
Note: I sort of conflated fiction and stories because I see them as sort of the same thing. Fiction is stories in print, but I mean...a video game, a visual novel, a play, a movie, a tv show, it all feels sort of the same to me, in the sense of this question. |
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