Welcome back to this month’s discussion thread for subscribers. Today, I wanted to talk about why we read fiction and ask your thoughts about it.
I spend a lot of my time reading novels or other forms of fiction as well as teaching them or writing about them. And then, of course, I write fiction as well. However, I think why we write fiction is another discussion. There’s some crossover for the reasons, in my case, but I think it deserves its own thread or essay.
Occasionally, I wonder if by reading fiction I’m just escaping reality, wasting time in some made up space. But most days, I find a lot of purpose and joy in it. I wouldn’t be who I am without all the fiction in my life. I find that this is the space where my mind can go deeper, play with ideas and move into understandings that I wouldn’t otherwise find. Sometimes it is also just that joy—a beauty brought to us by another human’s form of consciousness, giving us something else to see.
I will keep it shorter than usual to hear what you have to say and simply offer a few reasons for reading fiction:
to develop empathy
to escape / find joy / feel free
to find oneself / save oneself
to feel more connected to other people
to learn about other ways of thinking or cultures
to discover beauty
to avoid tragedy — personal, societal (heed a warning)
to give your brain a workout (and improve memory)
Why do you read fiction?
Alternatively, why do watch fiction? Or dive into fictions in other spaces than in books? (Is there a difference?)
And if you don’t read fiction, why not? (No judgment!)
Morning, Kate! Further to my reference to lists yesterday, I see that you have included one in this introduction (yay!), so I have deliberately not read your list before I think of some reasons of my own why I read fiction. I will then look at your list to see how much they intersect
To understand other cultures; to improve one's own language and writing skills; to seek comfort in the commonality of human experience; to obtain a deeper understanding of the author's own life and times which may also facilitate the next point; to study for academic exams; to discover new worlds and societies completely beyond our own actual experience; to connect and debate with others (book clubs); to lift one's mood, as in reading comic fiction; to familiarise oneself with the darker, more frightening and inexplicable areas of human nature, which I believe is a survival mechanism, as in crime and horror ; escapism, eg, being absorbed by Jane Austen's era, or sci-fi.
Ten's enough I think 😄Right - I'll look at your list now...
Jules, when I read A Gentleman in Moscow I was completely transported to another place and time which I can never experience on my own. What a gift to be able to see through the eyes of another life.
I read fiction for many of the reasons you mentioned. There is never one reason. If a friend recommended it, then I read so I understand what my friend loves because I love my friend. I recently read Madame Bovary because I could not understand René Girard’s book about desire and the novel with out having a working knowledge of the book. (Hated it. Maybe second reading will grow on me.) sometimes I want to relax or laugh or puzzle out a mystery. But I do have a list of books that I probably will never be able to get through in one lifetime. I read… to be.
This is a gorgeous reason as well, Zina, to read because of the friend who recommended it. We can learn about ourselves but maybe also about that friend. To me, the world of literature (and art) is about human connection. Even when we describe solitude or isolation, we are reaching others through these mediums.
I do love Madame Bovary :) but there are some classics I hate as well! ;)
The more I talk to other friends, the more I hear that just about everyone I trust hated Madame Bovary on the first reading but liked it better on the second. With your endorsement, perhaps I shall re-read in the future.
BTW - it is a pleasure to get to know you through your Substack. Love the community you have here and the conversations!
Why do I read fiction? It’s my blankie. My hot water bottle. The first blooms of spring and the last leaves of autumn. It’s birdsong, the far off sound of a train, the smell of fresh basil. It comforts. It lifts. It promises. It walks me home and sends me on adventures. All of that and so much more.
This is a gorgeous answer, Kathleen. So poetic! I wonder if you select your fiction for the seasons or moods, as you describe, or simply let them come to you?
Definitely mood and a bit of seasonal influence. There have been times when I thought I was ready for a read but found I could not settle with it. It lingers on my shelf waiting. Then there are the re reads and close reads that give way to so much more. Patience and trust.
Fiction (and memoir) can transport me to another world. It's the ultimate "Disney ride" except it lasts far far longer (a lifetime if you read something again and again) and it doesn't give me motion sickness.
I am also one to get motion sickness, so maybe this was my outlet from a young age. :) However, what a shame not to be able to read in a car. We took many car trips as a family in the US, from Boston to Minnesota and Florida several times. I guess that time looking out the window could have developed the writer in me instead.
Also agree that memoir can be a kind of fiction at least in the stylistic choices.
My first reaction to the question was that it didn’t make sense. It’s like asking why I raise my children, or even why I breathe air. It just feels like such an integral part of who I am and what I do. Which led me to wonder if it had always been that way. I think as a younger version of myself (if my memory can at all be believed, which it probably can’t), I read fiction to be absorbed in a different place, a different time, a different me. It was an adventure and a foundation for living in the world. But then as a young man it felt superfluous when I had a career to advance in and direct problems to solve. About 10 years ago I came back to fiction. It was a choice to explore again, to return to an intellectually and emotionally rigorous way of being, and a choice to learn how to see so that I could learn how to write. Over those last 10 years, it has become deeply ingrained. So maybe that’s to say, it’s a way of returning to childhood.
However, it's so interesting to see how we can turn away from it, perhaps because of the responsibilities in our lives or the fatigue of everyday life.
It is interesting then to think about how some give up fiction (and the arts) after they are 'forced' into them in school. I am not judging; instead, I wonder do they get this feeling elsewhere or is it because of burdens and fatigue? Perhaps travel or nature, for example, can offer something similar for different people. For me, I like to have my fiction in dialogue with these other things. Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective, Latham.
Wonderful, Ruth, thanks so much for these ideas. The language you use is especially layered with meaning. Semantic mountains -- how lovely.
This element of time I also find interesting. I think it is a way to pause with not only the thoughts of the author whose work we are reading but with our own that co-mingle. I am greatly interested in the 'eternal dialogue of literature' - it's something I nurture in my students - and I think that a lot of what you speak of here fits into that concept.
I am just finishing the last hundred pages of Middlemarch and have felt myself transported into a slower time, where conversation is nuanced, pregnant with meaning, and deliberative; an excellent counter-weight to the fast-paced snippets that are often our norm now. Wonderful to hear that you nurture the "eternal dialogue of literature" in your students :)
I think I read fiction to escape. Unlike other mediums, you kind of go inside yourself — the “movie” is in your head, so to speak. (Although, maybe people feel this way about, like, art? Not sure.)
I also do it because, to me, reading a good story is a spiritual experience that informs me as to why I am on this Earth as a human being with consciousness. Even the simplest story has the potential to explain something via a metaphor that is otherwise unexplainable. Stories are — and I truly believe this — the language of God. The stories of the great religions just happen to be the ones that speaks most universally and over the eons, but the stories of today in novels and other fiction speak to my souls more directly and nourishes my soul in that spiritual way.
The good fiction achieves this. Luckily I mostly read good fiction.
Fantastic, Clancy. Thanks so much for this answer.
It seems to me your first and second reasons are similar. I don't mean that in a negative way. I think that there is this escape that allows us an ellipsis (drawing on Derrida) to move into and find meaning or explore our deep selves.
What you are describing also links to this wonderful book that Nathan recommended to me several months ago. We are organizing a collaborative post on it coming up soon. In the meantime, you might want to check out this video (which he also shared with me):
Because I can’t help myself. I’ve tried at various points in life to spend all my time doing practical, productive, renumerated things—but that quickly becomes a futile effort; so much of what needs done also needs re-doing, until the end of days. And so this wasting of time in the art of fiction becomes a protest, subversive in the quietest of ways, of this societal imperative but also maybe of the passing of time itself.
Love this, Abra. Thank you. It brings the question of why we do anything at all? Beyond our necessary responsibilities, why do we choose to spend time the way we do?
Perhaps in some of these answers here, I've found there are also quite practical reasons to read fiction, even if there is not an immediate practical effect.
Yes, Dr. Kate— my comment was a bit glib. My ability to do anything practical at all often stems from my experience as a reader and a writer about books, as my higher education began in that field. Empathy, close observation of the words people use, reading them as a text, vocabulary, storytelling, different routes to humor and influence of others’ thoughts and emotions, exceptional writing and reading and second language abilities— these are all practical skills I’ve developed through reading fiction too. But it’s more fun to think of it as frivolity and rebellion and I think it can be that, too!
Hi Kate, great question! I really feel that fiction can be so many things at different times for us as readers. For example, when the world feels a bit much or I'm having a bad day, I often return to an old faithful that I know will deliver. Usually this is a dog-eared old copy from my own bookshelves and a story that takes me away into another time and place. Often, the book and even the bookmark or postcard left there from my last read will transport me to not only the fictional world of the book, but the last iteration of 'me' that read the story.
But equally, I turn to fiction when I want to understand myself or others around me. For example, I just finished reading a young adult book that my teenager asked me to read, which helped me to see life through their lens for a while. And I've just got my hands on 'Wayward' by Dana Spiotta after hearing her speak about it on a podcast and feeling like she was talking about everything that was on my mind! The book is about a woman who is struggling to find herself in middle-age as she juggles a teenager and her changing body and the stresses of the world...so, nothing much to relate to there, then!!
All this to say that, whilst I know we can find information about ourselves and others from non-fiction books, I think it is fiction that allows us to walk in another's shoes for a while, whether as a form of escape or to find how we might be feeling about our own lives.
Ah, old faithful! I love this. How true! And for me, often the books I choose to teach are faithful books, so I get to dive in again and again...
Wayward sounds great. Happy it is speaking to you. I know what you mean - I sometimes gravitate toward a subject that is linked to what I feel I am going through. This is why I love the independent bookshop with recommendations from staff. Often, even if I haven't heard of a book or author, I will buy a book when the topic seems close to me. I find that even if the book is forgettable, I learn something along the way.
Kate, this is such a great question and there are many nuances to it as well. Fiction ranges from classics to literary to genre categories and each has their own unique flavor and experience. I love reading them all and for different reasons. Genre fiction is typically relaxation or escapism. A lot of great genre fiction is "forgettable" in the sense that when I am finished reading I don't have to retain all the details to know that I had a positive experience and got enjoyment out of reading. We may remember favorite characters or general story arcs but most of these won't win big prizes. Literary fiction tends to expand my thinking, transport me to a new place/experience, open my mind to different viewpoints, and overall tends to stick with me a little longer. I tend to write a lot of marginalia in my Lit Fiction books and use sticky tabs and take notes. It often influences my thinking and writing. I read Classics to be exposed to the masters of the craft from ages past, to give myself a historical perspective on the evolution of writing, to see how modern writers have been influenced by those who came before us, and often to immerse myself in a genuinely good story.
Thanks for this wonderful response, Matthew, and also for sharing the post!
I think a lot of us here are talking about literary/more artistic or "deeper" fiction. I love that you bring up 'genre fiction' (which can be literary and artistic as well!). I think these reasons of the easy escape....something that might shift our thinking but not be as memorable....allow us to understand a place or culture (as you mentioned with Vienna in my other post)...these are all great reasons and why I love that there is so much variety out there. As we approach the season of 'beach reads,' it's a good reminder!
Great question, Kate. I certainly do some "escaping reality, wasting time in some made up space," but as far as I'm concerned, that's what Netflix is for.
I basically only read "literary" fiction, so I suppose the question for me partly turns into one about why I engage in art at all. But specifically in literary fiction, I enjoy finding myself in someone else's head. With George Eliot, Henry James, Yukio Mishima, any novelist I enjoy, that's a treat, even when it feels slightly disconcerting. I guess somewhere there's something in it about perspective, even empathy.
Part of this is exploring the world—sometimes a new culture, sometimes the past—through the eyes of a sensitive, observant person.
Ah, those are three of my favorite authors as well! Yes, I think it is about this kind of perspective or even consciousness as well for me. At the same time, it is an art, so the aesthetic creates an experience and a dialogue within the arts as well, moving toward...some deep understandings of humanity and the world.
I’ve always felt that fiction and narrative film are gentle teachers. They don’t tell their audience what to believe or how to think, but they are no less powerful in their messages. Delivering wisdom on promises of entertainment, fiction has a sneaky way of bypassing the ego’s resistance / identity structures that don’t even know the lessons they need.
"gentle teachers" - I may have to quote you on that later! 💯
And I do think that 'fiction' might appear in writing labeled non-fiction (memoir, for sure). It is that release from the bounds of our earthly knowledge into some space to explore.
I have always had a tendency to live in my head, to think and ponder a lot. When I learned to read, I found a gateway into other people's heads and to spend intimate time in their lives, both the characters and the authors. I experience what I read, as real as my own life. I'm not a recluse, I have family, friends, conversations and I do live a good life in the world. But I remember being surprised when I realized that for many people reading seems a chore, not something they experience as if they are in the story, know the characters. Then I understood why some people are not readers. There are only a few intimates I know as well as I know numerous characters in fiction. There have been times when 'real life' kept me from reading as much, but it is where I go with leisure time. I enjoy discussing a book with friends too, my husband and I always enjoyed sharing a novel or listening to one on tape while on a roadtrip.
Such an interesting reflection, especially about why some people are not readers. I sometimes wonder if they just didn’t find the right books to connect with? Or maybe found this experience elsewhere. Thanks for your comment, Leslie.
Both could be reasons. In conversations with family who don't enjoy fiction, being lost, transported, or sorry for it to end, just weren't part of their experience reading. The folks I have had those discussions with do enjoy non fiction and are physically active extroverts.
I write about this question elsewhere --truth in fiction --emotional truth hits the mark in all great writing. I add tow of my most recent reads among my thousands of books that have made me who I am: Richard Deming's _This Exquisite Loneliness_ --not fiction but an entry into the world of the creative and that I hope to write about that book soon. I found his first chapter in the Paris Review. And also recently, as much of Julian Barnes as I can get my hands on. You and I truly need to connect ...
Oh, I also adore Barnes! I’ve only read two of his books and need to get back to him. Exquisite writing, deeply layered and yet just dancing on the surface as well. I look forward to your post about Deming. That one is new to me but sounds great.
The answer to the value of fiction, I believe, is contained in Emily Dickinson’s poem below:
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
Or as Nietzsche explains the effectiveness of the indirect:
The Incomplete As the Effective.—Just as figures in relief make such a strong impression on the imagination because they seem in the act of emerging from the wall and only stopped by some sudden hindrance; so the relief-like, incomplete representation of a thought, or a whole philosophy, is sometimes more effective than its exhaustive[Pg 178] amplification,—more is left for the investigation of the onlooker, he is incited to the further study of that which stands out before him in such strong light and shade; he is prompted to think out the subject, and even to overcome the hindrance which hitherto prevented it from emerging clearly.
Not only does it help in understanding but - and this is important I believe - I prevents us from the curse of knowledge:
I've been sitting on this post in my inbox for a while because I've been busy, but wanted to see where the discussion went. It's hard to sum up such questions in comments, many who contend with it write full essays.
I'm gonna swing for the fences a little bit here: I have a clear preference for reading fiction over non-fiction, for reasons that can swing from escapist ("It's just more fun!" It's not always) to pretentious ("It's more truthful than fact." It's not always). But I also have a clear preference for experimental art over representative art regardless of if it's writing, music, visual arts, movies, performance, etc. So neither funness nor factness seems to be driving the "brain go brrrrr" thing here.
I think the simplest thing I can say is that I respond well to art that feels like a brain figuring itself out. And fiction tends to do that, I believe, a little better than non-fiction because non-fiction tends to keep the attention toward a conclusion: an essay to describe the world, a history to provide it a narrative, a memoir to historicize a life, instructional or reference books for learning, even philosophy and analysis to create logical structures of meaning in observation and comprehension. What fiction adds on top of that is a layer of independent association driven entirely by the writer's taste or influences.
An example: I have never read a non-fiction book on baseball. I'm not interested in the subject. I do know that if I read a non-fiction book on baseball, almost regardless of which book it is, I'd probably find it interesting, because the author found the subject interesting and I'd be getting their interest out of it.
But I love Don DeLillo's Underworld, which not only has a ton about baseball and baseball history in it, but the story opens on baseball in a very long sequence. In fact, once we left the baseball game, I struggled for a while because I wanted to get back to the baseball stuff! Why was I so into writing about baseball when DeLillo did it, but wouldn't read about baseball later?
Because the opening is about baseball, but it's also a short story of a young man who skips the till to view the show for free. And a story about J. Edgar Hoover. And a story about media and how the impact of a single homerun created an 'event' felt and observed by millions nationwide simultaneously and became part of the legend of America. And of course it was a story about America.
That homerun and its later missing ball is probably the subject of a non-fiction somewhere. There's obviously articles about it. But DeLillo had the event in mind when he was thinking about something else, and something else, and something else, and EMPLOYS it as one of various devices that he works into his overall tapestry of _stuff he's figuring out_ while he writes.
In the same regard I'm a little less interested in genre fiction than literary or experimental fiction, because there's concordantly less 'figuring out' when you have solid genre tools and devices to orient around usually a fairly distinct premise. But genre fiction and non-fiction do absolutely have their 'figuring out', I don't want to dismiss them. I'm in fact right now starting a read of a non-fiction book called A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen where she basically just got interested in how famous and important intellectuals ran into each other over time and through that "figured out" a sort of intuitive web of connections and influences of major thinkers from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th.
Literary and experimental fiction isn't 'better' but for me it just more opens the space for thinkers to freely associate ideas that don't necessarily fit together in other formats.
“I think the simplest thing I can say is that I respond well to art that feels like a brain figuring itself out.”
Absolutely! Yes, me, too. And that can take many shapes. Thanks for this incredibly thoughtful response, DB.
You’ll be pleased to hear I’ve got a couple bits on baseball-in-fiction in the summer podcast series, though I didn’t talk about DeLillo in the recordings. I LOVE his work.
Without Fiction, without imagination, we would still be living in caves. Fiction, our imagination, is the one force that propels us into the future and lets us revisit pasts long forgotten. Life as fiction, the one we tell ourselves to be real. We read it with every breath we take to our last exhale.
Why do we read fiction? Even if you have never read a book, you know fiction, you know stories, told and retold. We cannot exist without it.
Those fantastic caves! Maybe we should spend some time in them... Thanks for your kind words, don't know about wise, I feel I am poking in the dark with a stick way too short for anything at times.
That felt like an intriguing question when I read it. Because I never ask myself why I read fiction. It's -- normal. It might come from the times I was growing up, when reading was a staple item of one's education. Then university, my English major -- again read or be crushed by others' knowledge and fail exams. As an adult, I read fiction for the fascination of the world, of the characters' inner life. When I discovered Iris Murdoch, it was as if with her novels I rediscovered life: a magic, multi-layered, twinkling realm of beauty, pain, and above all meaning. It's never escape for me; on the contrary, it's a dive-in.
So interesting to trace our experiences with fiction, isn't it? Thanks for this lovely comment, Zoe. I agree, Murdoch is incredible. I haven't read enough of her work. This is a good reminder. :)
I think that the craving for narrative is one of the basic human needs. We need it; we drink it up. We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves in order to construct a self. I need to read fiction like I need to breathe.
Such an interesting question, Kate. I rarely read fiction, and when I do it's for historical research. I'm sure there's an element of it that is about being efficient with my time. I feel like there is so much factual knowledge that I need to hoover up in the world that I don't have time to focus on pleasure reading. That's not to say I don't find a lot of non-fiction very pleasurable, but I always read for a purpose -- to be able to construct an argument mainly. I will spend hours and hours listening to music for pleasure though, and don't consider that inefficient. Not sure why.
Oh, I'm so happy to find someone to comment on why you don't! Thanks, Victoria. Since I know a little about your scope of artistic and research interest, I would guess that perhaps the music AND all the art you look at as well as the deep (literary?) non-fiction/research you read might be why you don't need fiction literature. Correct me if I'm wrong! I think that a lot of the reasons people are talking about here can be found in the other ways you look at or listen to texts. And then perhaps there is saturation or just not enough time. I go through seasons of the way I ingest texts. During deep research or work with a lot of film, for example, I read very little if any fiction for months at a time. Sometimes when I am in the middle of a busy teaching load, I also only read the books I am teaching (usually re-reads, or focusing on certain passages) and then listen to more music like you. You have me thinking about the ebb and flow in my own world. Thank you for your comment.
Actually a bit hard for me to directly pinpoint now I sit and think about it.
It's certainly for the escape, an opportunity to visit other worlds and meet other people, to inhabit their minds, to see and feel different viewpoints (comfortable and uncomfortable), to be part of a story. But it's more than that. It's calming. It's a moving experience. It's an activity that I never feel bad about doing. I don't get up from reading and think "oh, I may have just wasted some time there" even if the book wasn't great.
It's also to experience the sheer joy of different forms of prose, style, vocabulary. It's a sort of passive learning experience too, I guess.
It's so great to feel like we can both escape and accept that escape as an essential part of our being as well as the way we spend time. It's also interesting to think of language and aesthetics in the way you describe. They create a kind of puzzle in my mind, a constantly moving way of understanding the world.
Yes, I'd say delving into other people's experiences. In general, fictional is experiential, of course. It can take us places that, in general, nonfiction cannot. But I remain most keenly interested in the worldview, view of the human being, vision, and values of each author. Probably why I like Tolkien the best. And so the author shares insights, and I make discoveries, even gain a revelation now and then or, ultimately, experience an epiphany.
Ah, the experimental nature! Yes, Mike, agree with this point that it moves into new territory, pushing our brains to think differently. Paradoxically, I think fiction can often give us something closer to the 'real' experience of another person.
Reading fiction is apparently more effective in reducing stress than taking a walk. So many benefits of reading fiction.
That's great. Yes, I do think it helps me to relax as well.
Thank you, Claudia. :)
I enjoy getting out and walking for exercise and general health benefits but when I want to relax I sit down with a good novel.
Morning, Kate! Further to my reference to lists yesterday, I see that you have included one in this introduction (yay!), so I have deliberately not read your list before I think of some reasons of my own why I read fiction. I will then look at your list to see how much they intersect
To understand other cultures; to improve one's own language and writing skills; to seek comfort in the commonality of human experience; to obtain a deeper understanding of the author's own life and times which may also facilitate the next point; to study for academic exams; to discover new worlds and societies completely beyond our own actual experience; to connect and debate with others (book clubs); to lift one's mood, as in reading comic fiction; to familiarise oneself with the darker, more frightening and inexplicable areas of human nature, which I believe is a survival mechanism, as in crime and horror ; escapism, eg, being absorbed by Jane Austen's era, or sci-fi.
Ten's enough I think 😄Right - I'll look at your list now...
I like the style not to be influenced before you think! :)
Great ideas with some crossover. I like this idea of being completely absorbed by an era/place. Sometimes I choose a book simply for that reason.
Thank you, Jules!
Jules, when I read A Gentleman in Moscow I was completely transported to another place and time which I can never experience on my own. What a gift to be able to see through the eyes of another life.
I so agree, Matthew. It's marvellous to be completely absorbed by someone's writing in that way.
I read fiction for many of the reasons you mentioned. There is never one reason. If a friend recommended it, then I read so I understand what my friend loves because I love my friend. I recently read Madame Bovary because I could not understand René Girard’s book about desire and the novel with out having a working knowledge of the book. (Hated it. Maybe second reading will grow on me.) sometimes I want to relax or laugh or puzzle out a mystery. But I do have a list of books that I probably will never be able to get through in one lifetime. I read… to be.
This is a gorgeous reason as well, Zina, to read because of the friend who recommended it. We can learn about ourselves but maybe also about that friend. To me, the world of literature (and art) is about human connection. Even when we describe solitude or isolation, we are reaching others through these mediums.
I do love Madame Bovary :) but there are some classics I hate as well! ;)
Thank you!
The more I talk to other friends, the more I hear that just about everyone I trust hated Madame Bovary on the first reading but liked it better on the second. With your endorsement, perhaps I shall re-read in the future.
BTW - it is a pleasure to get to know you through your Substack. Love the community you have here and the conversations!
Why do I read fiction? It’s my blankie. My hot water bottle. The first blooms of spring and the last leaves of autumn. It’s birdsong, the far off sound of a train, the smell of fresh basil. It comforts. It lifts. It promises. It walks me home and sends me on adventures. All of that and so much more.
This is a gorgeous answer, Kathleen. So poetic! I wonder if you select your fiction for the seasons or moods, as you describe, or simply let them come to you?
Definitely mood and a bit of seasonal influence. There have been times when I thought I was ready for a read but found I could not settle with it. It lingers on my shelf waiting. Then there are the re reads and close reads that give way to so much more. Patience and trust.
That’s lovely. I likewise keep a little pile, sometimes moving amongst daily moods. Sounds like you are very in touch with your self in this way.
Love this question, Kathleen,
Fiction (and memoir) can transport me to another world. It's the ultimate "Disney ride" except it lasts far far longer (a lifetime if you read something again and again) and it doesn't give me motion sickness.
Love this comment, David. Thank you!
I am also one to get motion sickness, so maybe this was my outlet from a young age. :) However, what a shame not to be able to read in a car. We took many car trips as a family in the US, from Boston to Minnesota and Florida several times. I guess that time looking out the window could have developed the writer in me instead.
Also agree that memoir can be a kind of fiction at least in the stylistic choices.
I read fiction to both escape and also understand how other people think, empathise and deal with things. Thanks for the thoughts on this.
I agree with all of these Jon. I find that fiction can give me a different perspective and help me work through issues by looking at them differently.
That is so true. I think we need to have different perspectives to help us develop ourselves.
Great reasons, Jon!
My first reaction to the question was that it didn’t make sense. It’s like asking why I raise my children, or even why I breathe air. It just feels like such an integral part of who I am and what I do. Which led me to wonder if it had always been that way. I think as a younger version of myself (if my memory can at all be believed, which it probably can’t), I read fiction to be absorbed in a different place, a different time, a different me. It was an adventure and a foundation for living in the world. But then as a young man it felt superfluous when I had a career to advance in and direct problems to solve. About 10 years ago I came back to fiction. It was a choice to explore again, to return to an intellectually and emotionally rigorous way of being, and a choice to learn how to see so that I could learn how to write. Over those last 10 years, it has become deeply ingrained. So maybe that’s to say, it’s a way of returning to childhood.
I think I’ll stick with that for now.
Yes, yes, yes. It is my air as well!
However, it's so interesting to see how we can turn away from it, perhaps because of the responsibilities in our lives or the fatigue of everyday life.
It is interesting then to think about how some give up fiction (and the arts) after they are 'forced' into them in school. I am not judging; instead, I wonder do they get this feeling elsewhere or is it because of burdens and fatigue? Perhaps travel or nature, for example, can offer something similar for different people. For me, I like to have my fiction in dialogue with these other things. Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective, Latham.
Great question Kathleen! Here are some reasons that come to mind (although there are many more:):
Reading makes me feel connected to history and those who have come before me
-Reading is a means for me to commune with other minds and imaginations
-Reading helps me to stand on "semantic mountains" (to use my husband's term) in a time where AI is creating an "eternal a-historical present". https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-booklegging-how-and-why
-The language of classic books gives me sparks of joy
-My brain feels massaged into a slower time when I read, something that feels necessary in a endlessly hurried world
- Finally, I simply enjoy the physicality of books - their texture, weight, smell, etc.
Wonderful, Ruth, thanks so much for these ideas. The language you use is especially layered with meaning. Semantic mountains -- how lovely.
This element of time I also find interesting. I think it is a way to pause with not only the thoughts of the author whose work we are reading but with our own that co-mingle. I am greatly interested in the 'eternal dialogue of literature' - it's something I nurture in my students - and I think that a lot of what you speak of here fits into that concept.
I am just finishing the last hundred pages of Middlemarch and have felt myself transported into a slower time, where conversation is nuanced, pregnant with meaning, and deliberative; an excellent counter-weight to the fast-paced snippets that are often our norm now. Wonderful to hear that you nurture the "eternal dialogue of literature" in your students :)
I think I read fiction to escape. Unlike other mediums, you kind of go inside yourself — the “movie” is in your head, so to speak. (Although, maybe people feel this way about, like, art? Not sure.)
I also do it because, to me, reading a good story is a spiritual experience that informs me as to why I am on this Earth as a human being with consciousness. Even the simplest story has the potential to explain something via a metaphor that is otherwise unexplainable. Stories are — and I truly believe this — the language of God. The stories of the great religions just happen to be the ones that speaks most universally and over the eons, but the stories of today in novels and other fiction speak to my souls more directly and nourishes my soul in that spiritual way.
The good fiction achieves this. Luckily I mostly read good fiction.
Fantastic, Clancy. Thanks so much for this answer.
It seems to me your first and second reasons are similar. I don't mean that in a negative way. I think that there is this escape that allows us an ellipsis (drawing on Derrida) to move into and find meaning or explore our deep selves.
What you are describing also links to this wonderful book that Nathan recommended to me several months ago. We are organizing a collaborative post on it coming up soon. In the meantime, you might want to check out this video (which he also shared with me):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaH411mqw5E
Because I can’t help myself. I’ve tried at various points in life to spend all my time doing practical, productive, renumerated things—but that quickly becomes a futile effort; so much of what needs done also needs re-doing, until the end of days. And so this wasting of time in the art of fiction becomes a protest, subversive in the quietest of ways, of this societal imperative but also maybe of the passing of time itself.
Love this, Abra. Thank you. It brings the question of why we do anything at all? Beyond our necessary responsibilities, why do we choose to spend time the way we do?
Perhaps in some of these answers here, I've found there are also quite practical reasons to read fiction, even if there is not an immediate practical effect.
Yes, Dr. Kate— my comment was a bit glib. My ability to do anything practical at all often stems from my experience as a reader and a writer about books, as my higher education began in that field. Empathy, close observation of the words people use, reading them as a text, vocabulary, storytelling, different routes to humor and influence of others’ thoughts and emotions, exceptional writing and reading and second language abilities— these are all practical skills I’ve developed through reading fiction too. But it’s more fun to think of it as frivolity and rebellion and I think it can be that, too!
Hi Kate, great question! I really feel that fiction can be so many things at different times for us as readers. For example, when the world feels a bit much or I'm having a bad day, I often return to an old faithful that I know will deliver. Usually this is a dog-eared old copy from my own bookshelves and a story that takes me away into another time and place. Often, the book and even the bookmark or postcard left there from my last read will transport me to not only the fictional world of the book, but the last iteration of 'me' that read the story.
But equally, I turn to fiction when I want to understand myself or others around me. For example, I just finished reading a young adult book that my teenager asked me to read, which helped me to see life through their lens for a while. And I've just got my hands on 'Wayward' by Dana Spiotta after hearing her speak about it on a podcast and feeling like she was talking about everything that was on my mind! The book is about a woman who is struggling to find herself in middle-age as she juggles a teenager and her changing body and the stresses of the world...so, nothing much to relate to there, then!!
All this to say that, whilst I know we can find information about ourselves and others from non-fiction books, I think it is fiction that allows us to walk in another's shoes for a while, whether as a form of escape or to find how we might be feeling about our own lives.
Ah, old faithful! I love this. How true! And for me, often the books I choose to teach are faithful books, so I get to dive in again and again...
Wayward sounds great. Happy it is speaking to you. I know what you mean - I sometimes gravitate toward a subject that is linked to what I feel I am going through. This is why I love the independent bookshop with recommendations from staff. Often, even if I haven't heard of a book or author, I will buy a book when the topic seems close to me. I find that even if the book is forgettable, I learn something along the way.
Thank you, Kate!
Kate, this is such a great question and there are many nuances to it as well. Fiction ranges from classics to literary to genre categories and each has their own unique flavor and experience. I love reading them all and for different reasons. Genre fiction is typically relaxation or escapism. A lot of great genre fiction is "forgettable" in the sense that when I am finished reading I don't have to retain all the details to know that I had a positive experience and got enjoyment out of reading. We may remember favorite characters or general story arcs but most of these won't win big prizes. Literary fiction tends to expand my thinking, transport me to a new place/experience, open my mind to different viewpoints, and overall tends to stick with me a little longer. I tend to write a lot of marginalia in my Lit Fiction books and use sticky tabs and take notes. It often influences my thinking and writing. I read Classics to be exposed to the masters of the craft from ages past, to give myself a historical perspective on the evolution of writing, to see how modern writers have been influenced by those who came before us, and often to immerse myself in a genuinely good story.
Thanks for this wonderful response, Matthew, and also for sharing the post!
I think a lot of us here are talking about literary/more artistic or "deeper" fiction. I love that you bring up 'genre fiction' (which can be literary and artistic as well!). I think these reasons of the easy escape....something that might shift our thinking but not be as memorable....allow us to understand a place or culture (as you mentioned with Vienna in my other post)...these are all great reasons and why I love that there is so much variety out there. As we approach the season of 'beach reads,' it's a good reminder!
Great question, Kate. I certainly do some "escaping reality, wasting time in some made up space," but as far as I'm concerned, that's what Netflix is for.
I basically only read "literary" fiction, so I suppose the question for me partly turns into one about why I engage in art at all. But specifically in literary fiction, I enjoy finding myself in someone else's head. With George Eliot, Henry James, Yukio Mishima, any novelist I enjoy, that's a treat, even when it feels slightly disconcerting. I guess somewhere there's something in it about perspective, even empathy.
Part of this is exploring the world—sometimes a new culture, sometimes the past—through the eyes of a sensitive, observant person.
Ah, those are three of my favorite authors as well! Yes, I think it is about this kind of perspective or even consciousness as well for me. At the same time, it is an art, so the aesthetic creates an experience and a dialogue within the arts as well, moving toward...some deep understandings of humanity and the world.
Thank you, Jeffrey!
I’ve always felt that fiction and narrative film are gentle teachers. They don’t tell their audience what to believe or how to think, but they are no less powerful in their messages. Delivering wisdom on promises of entertainment, fiction has a sneaky way of bypassing the ego’s resistance / identity structures that don’t even know the lessons they need.
"gentle teachers" - I may have to quote you on that later! 💯
And I do think that 'fiction' might appear in writing labeled non-fiction (memoir, for sure). It is that release from the bounds of our earthly knowledge into some space to explore.
Thanks so much, Kimberly.
I have always had a tendency to live in my head, to think and ponder a lot. When I learned to read, I found a gateway into other people's heads and to spend intimate time in their lives, both the characters and the authors. I experience what I read, as real as my own life. I'm not a recluse, I have family, friends, conversations and I do live a good life in the world. But I remember being surprised when I realized that for many people reading seems a chore, not something they experience as if they are in the story, know the characters. Then I understood why some people are not readers. There are only a few intimates I know as well as I know numerous characters in fiction. There have been times when 'real life' kept me from reading as much, but it is where I go with leisure time. I enjoy discussing a book with friends too, my husband and I always enjoyed sharing a novel or listening to one on tape while on a roadtrip.
Such an interesting reflection, especially about why some people are not readers. I sometimes wonder if they just didn’t find the right books to connect with? Or maybe found this experience elsewhere. Thanks for your comment, Leslie.
Both could be reasons. In conversations with family who don't enjoy fiction, being lost, transported, or sorry for it to end, just weren't part of their experience reading. The folks I have had those discussions with do enjoy non fiction and are physically active extroverts.
I write about this question elsewhere --truth in fiction --emotional truth hits the mark in all great writing. I add tow of my most recent reads among my thousands of books that have made me who I am: Richard Deming's _This Exquisite Loneliness_ --not fiction but an entry into the world of the creative and that I hope to write about that book soon. I found his first chapter in the Paris Review. And also recently, as much of Julian Barnes as I can get my hands on. You and I truly need to connect ...
Oh, I also adore Barnes! I’ve only read two of his books and need to get back to him. Exquisite writing, deeply layered and yet just dancing on the surface as well. I look forward to your post about Deming. That one is new to me but sounds great.
Mary, so pleased we are now connected! 💙🌟
I wonder the same:
https://ranas9.substack.com/p/sapiens
The answer to the value of fiction, I believe, is contained in Emily Dickinson’s poem below:
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
Or as Nietzsche explains the effectiveness of the indirect:
The Incomplete As the Effective.—Just as figures in relief make such a strong impression on the imagination because they seem in the act of emerging from the wall and only stopped by some sudden hindrance; so the relief-like, incomplete representation of a thought, or a whole philosophy, is sometimes more effective than its exhaustive[Pg 178] amplification,—more is left for the investigation of the onlooker, he is incited to the further study of that which stands out before him in such strong light and shade; he is prompted to think out the subject, and even to overcome the hindrance which hitherto prevented it from emerging clearly.
Not only does it help in understanding but - and this is important I believe - I prevents us from the curse of knowledge:
https://ranas9.substack.com/p/the-curse-of-knowledge
I've been sitting on this post in my inbox for a while because I've been busy, but wanted to see where the discussion went. It's hard to sum up such questions in comments, many who contend with it write full essays.
I'm gonna swing for the fences a little bit here: I have a clear preference for reading fiction over non-fiction, for reasons that can swing from escapist ("It's just more fun!" It's not always) to pretentious ("It's more truthful than fact." It's not always). But I also have a clear preference for experimental art over representative art regardless of if it's writing, music, visual arts, movies, performance, etc. So neither funness nor factness seems to be driving the "brain go brrrrr" thing here.
I think the simplest thing I can say is that I respond well to art that feels like a brain figuring itself out. And fiction tends to do that, I believe, a little better than non-fiction because non-fiction tends to keep the attention toward a conclusion: an essay to describe the world, a history to provide it a narrative, a memoir to historicize a life, instructional or reference books for learning, even philosophy and analysis to create logical structures of meaning in observation and comprehension. What fiction adds on top of that is a layer of independent association driven entirely by the writer's taste or influences.
An example: I have never read a non-fiction book on baseball. I'm not interested in the subject. I do know that if I read a non-fiction book on baseball, almost regardless of which book it is, I'd probably find it interesting, because the author found the subject interesting and I'd be getting their interest out of it.
But I love Don DeLillo's Underworld, which not only has a ton about baseball and baseball history in it, but the story opens on baseball in a very long sequence. In fact, once we left the baseball game, I struggled for a while because I wanted to get back to the baseball stuff! Why was I so into writing about baseball when DeLillo did it, but wouldn't read about baseball later?
Because the opening is about baseball, but it's also a short story of a young man who skips the till to view the show for free. And a story about J. Edgar Hoover. And a story about media and how the impact of a single homerun created an 'event' felt and observed by millions nationwide simultaneously and became part of the legend of America. And of course it was a story about America.
That homerun and its later missing ball is probably the subject of a non-fiction somewhere. There's obviously articles about it. But DeLillo had the event in mind when he was thinking about something else, and something else, and something else, and EMPLOYS it as one of various devices that he works into his overall tapestry of _stuff he's figuring out_ while he writes.
In the same regard I'm a little less interested in genre fiction than literary or experimental fiction, because there's concordantly less 'figuring out' when you have solid genre tools and devices to orient around usually a fairly distinct premise. But genre fiction and non-fiction do absolutely have their 'figuring out', I don't want to dismiss them. I'm in fact right now starting a read of a non-fiction book called A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen where she basically just got interested in how famous and important intellectuals ran into each other over time and through that "figured out" a sort of intuitive web of connections and influences of major thinkers from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th.
Literary and experimental fiction isn't 'better' but for me it just more opens the space for thinkers to freely associate ideas that don't necessarily fit together in other formats.
“I think the simplest thing I can say is that I respond well to art that feels like a brain figuring itself out.”
Absolutely! Yes, me, too. And that can take many shapes. Thanks for this incredibly thoughtful response, DB.
You’ll be pleased to hear I’ve got a couple bits on baseball-in-fiction in the summer podcast series, though I didn’t talk about DeLillo in the recordings. I LOVE his work.
Without Fiction, without imagination, we would still be living in caves. Fiction, our imagination, is the one force that propels us into the future and lets us revisit pasts long forgotten. Life as fiction, the one we tell ourselves to be real. We read it with every breath we take to our last exhale.
Why do we read fiction? Even if you have never read a book, you know fiction, you know stories, told and retold. We cannot exist without it.
YES. And even in caves, there was fiction...
Thanks for this poetic and wise response, Alexander.
Those fantastic caves! Maybe we should spend some time in them... Thanks for your kind words, don't know about wise, I feel I am poking in the dark with a stick way too short for anything at times.
That felt like an intriguing question when I read it. Because I never ask myself why I read fiction. It's -- normal. It might come from the times I was growing up, when reading was a staple item of one's education. Then university, my English major -- again read or be crushed by others' knowledge and fail exams. As an adult, I read fiction for the fascination of the world, of the characters' inner life. When I discovered Iris Murdoch, it was as if with her novels I rediscovered life: a magic, multi-layered, twinkling realm of beauty, pain, and above all meaning. It's never escape for me; on the contrary, it's a dive-in.
So interesting to trace our experiences with fiction, isn't it? Thanks for this lovely comment, Zoe. I agree, Murdoch is incredible. I haven't read enough of her work. This is a good reminder. :)
I think that the craving for narrative is one of the basic human needs. We need it; we drink it up. We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves in order to construct a self. I need to read fiction like I need to breathe.
Absolutely, John. Latham's answer here also discusses reading fiction as a part of living despite the fact that he left it for about ten years.
Beautifully put.
Such an interesting question, Kate. I rarely read fiction, and when I do it's for historical research. I'm sure there's an element of it that is about being efficient with my time. I feel like there is so much factual knowledge that I need to hoover up in the world that I don't have time to focus on pleasure reading. That's not to say I don't find a lot of non-fiction very pleasurable, but I always read for a purpose -- to be able to construct an argument mainly. I will spend hours and hours listening to music for pleasure though, and don't consider that inefficient. Not sure why.
Oh, I'm so happy to find someone to comment on why you don't! Thanks, Victoria. Since I know a little about your scope of artistic and research interest, I would guess that perhaps the music AND all the art you look at as well as the deep (literary?) non-fiction/research you read might be why you don't need fiction literature. Correct me if I'm wrong! I think that a lot of the reasons people are talking about here can be found in the other ways you look at or listen to texts. And then perhaps there is saturation or just not enough time. I go through seasons of the way I ingest texts. During deep research or work with a lot of film, for example, I read very little if any fiction for months at a time. Sometimes when I am in the middle of a busy teaching load, I also only read the books I am teaching (usually re-reads, or focusing on certain passages) and then listen to more music like you. You have me thinking about the ebb and flow in my own world. Thank you for your comment.
ALL THE REASONS!
Great question, Kate.
Actually a bit hard for me to directly pinpoint now I sit and think about it.
It's certainly for the escape, an opportunity to visit other worlds and meet other people, to inhabit their minds, to see and feel different viewpoints (comfortable and uncomfortable), to be part of a story. But it's more than that. It's calming. It's a moving experience. It's an activity that I never feel bad about doing. I don't get up from reading and think "oh, I may have just wasted some time there" even if the book wasn't great.
It's also to experience the sheer joy of different forms of prose, style, vocabulary. It's a sort of passive learning experience too, I guess.
It's so great to feel like we can both escape and accept that escape as an essential part of our being as well as the way we spend time. It's also interesting to think of language and aesthetics in the way you describe. They create a kind of puzzle in my mind, a constantly moving way of understanding the world.
Thank you, Nathan!
Yes, I'd say delving into other people's experiences. In general, fictional is experiential, of course. It can take us places that, in general, nonfiction cannot. But I remain most keenly interested in the worldview, view of the human being, vision, and values of each author. Probably why I like Tolkien the best. And so the author shares insights, and I make discoveries, even gain a revelation now and then or, ultimately, experience an epiphany.
Ah, the experimental nature! Yes, Mike, agree with this point that it moves into new territory, pushing our brains to think differently. Paradoxically, I think fiction can often give us something closer to the 'real' experience of another person.
Thank you!