I’ve been thinking a bit the last few days about the motivation behind and need for fiction as an important component of literature. This train of thought was set in motion by a conversation with someone who dislikes fiction because he feels that the reader is being lied to. Everything is fake in a work of fiction.
I of course disagree. I do not believe that any writer can make up every single aspect of a work of fiction, or would even want to. Settings, plotlines and characters may well be created for the purpose of the story, although are often rooted in fact. What the story tells us about our world and the human condition is real though and should come from the writer’s soul, if they are any good and have some integrity as a writer.
In my opinion the line between creativity and deception is crossed when the reader is deceived into thinking that something fictitious is real.
Most religions & philosophies have in their literature a lot of allegorical stories and parables. They are not there to deceive but rather to teach a truth by means of a story that we can relate to. The setting is illustrative but the message is real.
Good fiction is a bit like a parable, the setting & characters are made up but it contains truth and reality to teach us something.
I of course disagree. I do not believe that any writer can make up every single aspect of a work of fiction, or would even want to. Settings, plotlines and characters may well be created for the purpose of the story, although are often rooted in fact. What the story tells us about our world and the human condition is real though and should come from the writer’s soul, if they are any good and have some integrity as a writer.
In my opinion the line between creativity and deception is crossed when the reader is deceived into thinking that something fictitious is real.
Most religions & philosophies have in their literature a lot of allegorical stories and parables. They are not there to deceive but rather to teach a truth by means of a story that we can relate to. The setting is illustrative but the message is real.
Good fiction is a bit like a parable, the setting & characters are made up but it contains truth and reality to teach us something.
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