Great Fiction Tells the Truth About Human Nature
The fact that fiction is not real doesn’t make it any less true.
My massage therapist recently told me that she doesn’t like reading fiction because it is “not real”. She is an avid reader of biographies, memoirs, and other genres — as long as they’re non-fiction.
As a great lover of fiction, I couldn’t believe what I heard. I had never met anyone unwilling to read stories because of their being fictional before.
Sure, there are a lot of people who don’t read fiction, but most of them don’t because they lack the necessary time or patience. Usually, these people don’t read at all, or at least no more than a few online articles a week.
Since my therapist is someone who devours books like I devour pizza, I was thoroughly shocked to hear that she doesn’t read fiction. She said she wanted real stories, not invented ones.
And that’s where she is wrong.
The fact that fictional stories are invented doesn’t mean that they are not true. It is one of the great qualities of fiction to tell true stories that haven’t actually happened.
Otherwise, it would basically just be journalism.
