What is the purpose of reading fiction? Is it to educate? To have fun?
According to Laura Miller, Senior writer at Salon.com, it is the Puritan work ethic of American readers that takes all the fun out of reading fiction. She says:
[It] boils down to the belief that reading can only be the means to an end, whether that end is moral betterment or worldly success (two classic Puritan preoccupations). For some of us, however, reading is an end in itself, and what fiction has to offer isn’t lessons but an experience, a revelation, a sudden expansion of the spirit. Like any art, it can teach or motivate, but it doesn’t have to, and it’s often better when it doesn’t.
Read the rest of the Salon article here.
I read fiction to become a better fiction writer. So I guess I do have some “Puritan” in me that wants to study by example. But I also read for fun. A good story expands my view of the world. It helps me see how we’re more alike than different. Are you reading fiction right now? Why do you do it? Or do you even need a reason?
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes fiction. Check out my books here.
Email subscribers are weighing in. I hope you enjoy their responses as much as I do:
“Hi Susan, I read fiction because it transports me into someone and something that is not part of my immediate world. The words on the page, the nuances and the imagination of fiction inspire me to look outside myself and find different experiences exciting. Truthfully, I just read to enjoy the written word put forth by writer’s who’s purpose is to inform and entertain. Mary”
and:
“I find that there is even some thread of truth or sense of credibility in even the most outlandish fiction, and, It is said that, anything is possible. Guess from that viewpoint, we would have to clearly define, fiction.”
From my daughter on facebook, where this post also got some comments:
Stacey wrote: “I read because my mother didn’t like us watching tv. I learned to actually use my imagination (lost art). Instead of tv, I watched the magical stories in books. “
Another facebook comment:
Gail wrote: “To go places & times I could never otherwise visit. I also find fiction can sometimes flesh out fact by emotionally involving the reader it the lives of the dovekeepers at Masada, say, and not just a re-telling of facts.”
Why do I read fiction? Easy. To get out of cutting the grass!
Seriously, same reason I read anything else: to see what those before me knew. When you read what Cervantes, Tolstoy, Woolf, Faulkner, James, and Montaigne, de Tocqueville, Diderot and Bailyn knew, it’s humbling. Then when you read an editorial or hear a political party’s “great new idea,” you realize it’s not so new after all, and the results are often already well-known. Who was it who said those who do know the past are condemned to repeat it?
I read fiction because it’s fun. There are few things that can hold my attention the way that a good book can – at least for the duration of time that a good book can.
Hi John,
Fiction does come in handy for many things. I’ve never thought of it as a reason to get out of cutting the grass, though. Since I live on a mountain, I get out of doing that anyway. But I’ll be thinking of other things I can use it to get out of.
And Sonje, I’m always in the search of good fiction. Please let me know what you’re reading that excites you.
Actually we have gardeners now. Haven’t cut grass in 17 years. 🙂
hmmm…you don’t read fiction to escape? I have had pulls between fiction and nonfiction–maybe that’s the Puritan ethic in me! I know that I want my story to be useful to kids and to tell some sort of truth. Interesting blogs!
> I know that I want my story to be useful to kids and to tell some sort of
> truth.
Great aspiration. But why limit it to children?