I wanted to share this delightful post from Nimue Brown from Druid Life, called “The Silliest Job Imaginable.” A short excerpt:
Fiction has a capacity to get in under the radar. It can prompt us to think and feel in unfamiliar ways, precisely because we do not take it too seriously. In many ways, a fiction work has more potential to change the world than a non-fic, because it can sneak in and travel further. Consider the relationship between Frankenstein and genetically modified food. Consider how a culture of space-opera-adventure feeds our collective desire to reach for the stars. Think about how Disney taught us to equate beauty with virtue and ugliness with being evil. Consider how JK Rowling has gone some way towards reversing that. There is power in those unreal things.
And just one more:
Religions are made of stories – often quiet implausible ones at that. All aspirations for the future are stories we tell ourselves, and we process the past into coherent narrative form, too, turning the chaos into meaning. We are story telling creatures, and we respond to narrative. So while writing fiction often feels like the most pointless, ineffective thing I could try and do, I also know that it is the thing I do with most potential for real impact.
So well said. I couldn’t agree more.
3 thoughts on “The Power of Fiction”
Kate Loveton
Hello! Just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award. Congratulations!
http://kateloveton.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/sisterhood-of-the-world-bloggers-award/
Michelle Joelle
Thank you so much! I don’t know too much about this, so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. I’m so flattered!
Kate Loveton
You’re welcome; you have a wonderful blog. You are not required to do anything, but if you’d like to accept the award, you just need to pretty much follow my format – answer the ten questions, and then choose 10 blogs to introduce others to that you enjoy. But whether you do so, is entirely voluntary. 🙂