The art and creative pastime of reading fiction is on the wane in our society. A number of factors contribute to this; I think we all know what they are, so I won’t waste time talking about the causes. Instead, I want to remind us all (yes, including myself; I don’t read nearly as much as I used to) of why reading fiction—at least, the right kind of fiction—is not merely entertaining but good for the soul.
Fiction expands the mind
Fiction can take us to times and places we’ve never been, perhaps can never go. It shows us worlds, whether real or imagined, that cast a different light on the world we live in. Fiction is better at this than nonfiction because it invites us to enter into the experience of characters living in the other world: we see through their eyes, hear through their ears, touch, taste, and smell with their sense organs, process information through the lens of their cultural context. We come to understand far more than our own limited lives can show us. History comes alive; its lessons hit home in a way they never can in a classroom.
Fiction cultivates empathy
Closely related to the above, fiction cultivates empathy. As we view the world through the eyes of people whose lives are quite different from our own, we paradoxically come to understand how very alike we all are in spite of that. Differences in gender, ethnicity, religion, social class, or anything else don’t reach far below the skin. If you prick us, we all bleed red. We all share substantially the same hopes and fears. We are all human beings made in the image of God. In our increasingly insular, xenophobic society, this understanding is crucial to our mutual survival.
Fiction makes hard truths palatable
People often dismiss fiction as made-up, un-factual, and therefore useless. But good fiction has its own kind of truth—a truth that can cut much deeper than mere facts. Fiction takes the reality we see around us and transforms it, through the deep magic of art, into a stage on which the truths of human nature and of God’s providence become more evident than they often are in life. We can’t always see the big picture in which good triumphs over evil, but in the best fiction, that picture is painted at a size we can perceive. We can’t always see clearly the battle between good and evil in our own hearts, but fiction can hold up a mirror that shows us the uncomfortable truths about ourselves that we’d rather ignore—while also showing us the way to redemption.
Fiction provides a respite from real life
The best fiction is not necessarily escapist in the sense that you can dip into it, forget the real world for a while, and fantasize yourself into the kind of life you wish you had. That kind of escapism isn’t great for the soul because it lulls us into complacency instead of encouraging us to grow. But good fiction does provide what J.R.R. Tolkien referred to as consolation: the balm for the soul that comes from briefly inhabiting a world perhaps more beautiful than our own, where good triumphs and justice prevails—a world that bears, however faintly, the scent of paradise. No one can struggle forever without hope. Good fiction reminds us that hope is not an illusion.
All good stories tell the one universal story
Finally (for this introductory essay), all good stories retell the one eternal story of God’s immeasurable love and humankind’s redemption. The unnamed prince of fairy tales like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty is Christ in disguise; the rescued princess is every woman and man who embraces Him and accepts this rescue. Every hero or heroine is on a journey to discover the divine in some form and bring it back to enrich the whole community. Whatever good things reward the protagonist who perseveres to the end are ultimately sent from God. This can be true even in spite of the author’s intentions, as long as he or she has not completely turned away from the Good, the Beautiful, and the True.
In future posts, I’ll go more deeply into some specific whys of reading fiction. In the meantime, tell me about the good things fiction has done in your life.
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