How Reading Fiction Helps You Learn About the World

Lessons we can all take away from reading more fiction

“Once upon a time, in a land far far away…”

For many, these are the words that invite them into a fictional world imagined by a writer. By definition, fiction is a work of imagination whether in a visual, oratory, or written form and therefore is inherently unreal.

As such, many believe that the sole purpose of fiction is for entertainment and turn to non-fiction for truth and learning. While I cannot deny the fact that reading non-fiction books is a great way for you to learn and broaden your knowledge, I’d argue that reading fiction is equally as important.

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.” ~Khaled Hosseini

Fiction is able to reflect the inner workings of society

Even though most fiction engages with an imagined world, there are actually numerous fictional works that provide an accurate depiction of how society functions and operates.

For example, in the Singaporean play The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole, readers are given an insight into what the Chinese community was like during the early days of Singapore’s independence. The jarring use of Singlish (Singapore’s colloquial version of English) in the play is an element that opens up a small window into the Singaporean society.

And even though historical non-fiction would be able to provide more accurate and in-depth knowledge about a historical time period, a fictional book based on history would be better able to contextualize and allow you to ‘experience’ the events. This sort of fiction allows you to truly appreciate the social cues of the time period and live through the fictional characters to interact with the past.

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, readers are exposed firsthand to the struggles the working class faced during The Great Depression and the racism experienced by the Blacks during that time period. While the characters in the novel are definitely not real historical figures, this work of fiction managed to appropriately bring the workings of the American society in the 1930s to readers.

Fiction exposes the truth behind society

Apart from reflecting the inner beliefs and workings of a society, fiction is actually able to reflect a deeper “greater truth”. This happens because fiction actually serves as a powerful platform for writers to present what they believe are the pressing concerns of society.

For example, in Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, Miller makes a powerful social commentary about the pragmatic American society, suggesting that the endless pursuit of monetary wealth can lead to wrongdoings that have great impacts on the larger community. On the other hand, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet took a very strong stance against slavery, something she believed to be a pressing concern in society, painting it as a mortal sin.

Apart from reflecting the pressing concerns of society, fiction serves as a platform where writers can explore the fears that are present in society. This is especially true for dystopian and apocalyptic fiction.

For example, the film series Planet of the Apes mirrors our fear of being taken over as the dominant species while the comedic science fiction movie Idiocracy explores dysgenic effects that we fear will happen when we rely too much on technology. In the comic series Injustice: The Gods Among Us, the readers are presented with a situation where immense power goes ungoverned. Here, even though Superman might have started off with honorable intentions, the writer draws our attention to the fact that the method of reaching these respectable goals might cause more harm than good.

Similarly, George Orwell’s 1984, underlines society’s fear of a totalitarian government who has absolute power over the society. Through the entertaining medium of fiction, writers are able to highlight the hidden truths in society, becoming an avenue for education and a catalyst for change. In the case of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe managed to make such an impactful statement that the book is generally considered to have helped bring about the Civil War.

“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth”. ~Albert Camus

Reading fiction helps with increasing empathy in readers

In fiction, we experience the world’s events through the eyes of a character. Fiction allows readers to learn about the character’s motives, perspective and thought processes. By reading works of fiction widely, you live the lives of the many characters that you have read about. All these work to help you become better at understanding others, increasing the empathy you have for others.

According to a 2013 study published in Science, participants who read literary fiction had a marked improvement on a test that tested their Theory of Mind. As the Theory of Mind is the social-cognitive skill that includes one’s ability to understand that others have thoughts and beliefs that may be different, having an improvement would suggest that these individuals were better able to consider those factors that lead to differences in beliefs, empathizing with others in the process.

Furthermore, a 2014 study suggested that elementary and high school students became more empathetic towards immigrants, refugees and LGBT individuals after reading passages from the book related to discrimination from Harry Potter.

Fiction engages your creative juices

As fiction is a work of imagination, by reading more fiction, you will be able to feed and work the creative muscle in your mind.

While not everyone engages in activities that directly require creativity (think artists, designers and writers), the reality is that everybody requires a good imagination. Engineers need a strong imagination to picture different possible fixes to a problem; Scientists can use their imagination to come out with unconventional ways to conduct an experiment; Entrepreneurs would need to come out with creative ways to grow and promote their business.

By reading more fiction, we feed our brains with new ideas and perspectives that might come in helpful when we least expect them to be.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ~Michael Scott

The final word

Despite the way fiction is portrayed, fiction actually serves a more important role than to simply entertain the masses. As David Foster Wallace aptly puts it “Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

So the next time you see a work of fiction you are interested in, don’t hesitate to pick it up. In fact, you might end up learning more than if you had decided to read a non-fiction book.

“Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.”

~G.K. Chesterton

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