“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth,” Camus said. What this means is that every day, we see the horrors of the world, we see wars and diseases, hatred and ignorance, we see so much that after a point it becomes normal.
“The new normal”, as people call it, makes us indifferent, someone’s death becomes just another piece of news. We somehow become insensitive, which is, in fact, pretty common. It is not until we take a nuanced look into the lives of the people that we finally become human again, and that is everything that fiction is.
A subject like history gives us facts, it gives us a piece of information that we ought to know, but fiction adds life to that fact. We all know about the traumas of Partition, but it was not until we read Train to Pakistan that we for the first time lived that trauma. Fiction helps us live vicariously through the characters. We experience things in a way that is not possible in any other form of art. It is like we silently slip into someone’s life and live it through them. Non-fiction books too have value to them, as they are meant to teach us, inform and educate us, which is, of course, extremely important, but the intent of fiction is not to teach — they are simply meant to be read and felt and read again.
Reading fiction opens doors to a new life, we see different perspectives, we analyse and introspect and, in the end, become a better version of ourselves. Fiction makes us more sensitive and empathetic, it helps us understand and accept the different people around us. On a more technical basis, reading fiction improves our emotional intelligence, it positively affects our critical thinking ability and our capacity to understand the psyche of people. Reading fiction improves our ability to imagine, which is one of the limitations of cinema. We are given a black canvas and the freedom to paint anything. Thus, it will be unfair to say that a particular work of fiction belongs to the author; his work is definitely the framework but no two people see it alike. In a philosophical sense, fiction changes our aura and our understanding of the world. People who read fiction are more compassionate and stoic. Even the world looks at them with awe.
Of course, there have been arguments about how fiction is a corrupt version of reality. Some believe that reading fiction detaches us from reality and completely traps our minds into the web of hyperreal words. Though we cannot dismiss these arguments completely, it will be foolish of us to form a bias against a piece of art without considering its positive effects. Fiction, though made up, is not detached from reality; in fact, it is a painting of the world; a bit different but not inaccurate. Thus, there is definitely value to reading fiction, unlike self-help books, it may not offer a solution to our problems but it will most certainly change our outlook towards them.
akshita.dream@gmail.com
