Fiction — if well-written — does all this and more. The importance is not the age of the piece, but what it can do for the reader. It can be Lord of the Rings or Lord of the Flies; it can be The Odyssey, or Pilgrim’s Progress, Huck Finn or Hamlet. By their nature, stories can open up lines of thinking that rote learning cannot. They are immersive, we find ourselves drawn into them, we see human interaction — good and bad, and learn about the human condition, and ourselves in the process. Who was really the fool in King Lear, and why? What can Les Miserables teach us about the human condition? How do extraordinary circumstances make heroes out of ordinary people?
Fiction lets us explore complexities mirroring human interaction that cannot be duplicated in non-fiction, allowing us to vicariously feel the joy, grief or anxiety of protagonists. But it also sets forward archetypes and ideals; giving us heroes better than we are capable of being, or villains with unspeakably black hearts. These can give us a shared language to help us calibrate what we value as good and just, what social evils need confronting and challenge us to reach for greatness beyond our present circumstance.
In a time where schoolyard “grief counsellors” rule the day, poetry and prose can also help the reader emotionally grapple with and understand complex human conditions ranging from grief or disappointment to hubris.
They awaken in us that spark of wonder needed for the exploration of faraway places, of making new discoveries, and traveling to exotic lands.
Finally, they are a window into new ways of thinking. Philosophers like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Voltaire used stories to persuade others of their ideas. Swift, Pope and Dickens used fiction to highlight problems they saw in society. Aesop taught life lessons. And most famously of all, Jesus Christ is remembered for his parables: stories that conveyed great truths in simple illustrations, like the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.
If we neglect our fiction, we will certainly impoverish ourselves and children. Worse yet, we may abandon those things which unify our culture.
Image: feito por mim; author: angela bonas; public domain
