Monday, January 20, 2014

Fiction is healthy for our outlook




An eye-opening experience I had was stopping over at Tokyo Airport on the way to Heathrow, when I was 20 years old. As we walked through the long airport terminal, the only three Anglo-Saxon faces to be seen anywhere belonged to me and my parents. The rest of the vast crowd was comprised of Asian faces, Japanese specifically. There were thousands of pretty girls with glossy, jet-black hair, cute toddlers and smart-looking men. Undoubtedly, a stream of western tourists turn up in that international airport all the time, but at that moment, for as far as I could see, there was just us.

We were getting covert glances and sometimes smiles. Growing up as a fourth or fifth generation Australian in
Adelaide, I had carried an unconscious sense that most people were like me. We were the 'common' type. Of course I'd been taught at school that the vast majority of the world was filled with other races, who had different coloured skins and spoke different languages. The dry facts and text book photos obviously hadn't made it sink in. Now, during that long walk with our suitcases through Tokyo Airport, I had my first experience of feeling 'foreign'. The world was a far bigger place than I'd ever imagined.

I sometimes remember my impressions of that day in 1990. It's healthy to think of ourselves from someone else's point of view for a change. I find it a good remedy for remembering that the world doesn't revolve around me. It's wise also to consider how easy it is for individuals to carry a sort of delusion of grandeur and self-importance. Although I am ME to myself, the crucial person in my life's story, I am an OTHER to everyone else on our planet, who are busy being the centre of their own stories. From this perspective, any special sense of entitlement has to be rejected.

It's the same for why fiction is a good medium to read and write. When people ask me why I write it, I've sometimes felt put on the spot, unable to come up with a reasonable sounding answer. I have an inner conviction that it's excellent and important, but a simple, "I've always enjoyed it," seemed a self-indulgent answer and certainly not acceptable. When I remember my impressions in
Tokyo that day, I think it's all tied in with the reason why.

Fiction enables us to remove ourselves from our own egos and look at the world from the perspective of others. Studies I've read about have indicated that fiction readers really are higher on a measured empathy scale than non-fiction readers or non-readers. This doesn't surprise me. When we are reading a novel which switches from one character's point of view to that of another, we are filled with new ways of looking at the world. We may begin a story automatically endorsing one person's opinion and rejecting another, but when we read part of the story being told from the opposite point of view, it allows us the experience of entering a head which is totally different from where we might have expected to find ourselves.

It's so easy not to realise that all this is happening when we are simply reading a good story. What a great exercise for helping to understand and broadening our tolerance, even if just a little bit. This is what I often aim to do with characters who don't seem so lovable. In my opinion, being able to see a glimpse of the world from someone else's perpective, even just a flash, is well worth the effort a fiction writer may have to put in to provide this.
Paula Vince is an award-winning fiction author who lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills of South Australia, which she likes to make the setting for several of her novels. She believes that nothing has the power to delight and inspire more than a good story. Her ninth novel, 'Imogen's Chance' will be published in April, 2014.

11 comments:

  1. Great post Paula! I love that funny but true comment you made...I am ME to myself, but to everyone else I am an OTHER.
    And seeing life from the perspective of various characters is what I love most about my favourite fiction novels.

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  2. Hi Rita,
    Same with me. And as for that lesson, it's not always comfortable but good to learn :)

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  3. Paula I loved this post. Thank you for showing me the importance of writing and reading fiction. Often I hear comments that as a Christian I should be reading "GOOD books" --i.e. non-fiction-- and not using fiction to escape. But you're so right. That's where I learn empathy and identify with others.

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    1. Hi Shirley,
      I've had the same thing said to me, several times. And we have a good reason for reading (and writing) fiction.
      Blessings,
      Paula

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  4. Paula, it's great to remember why reading fiction is good for us. Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. Hi Narelle,
      Yes, I agree, it's too easy to get distracted with thoughts that we're wasting time, if we don't remember why :)

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  5. Amen, Paula. Even as a child I found books about people "just like me" to be boring. I would much rather experience a totally different life in fiction. Tomorrow on this site I am interviewing an author who writes about Syrian women. She is convinced that knowing one another's stories is the key to resolving conflict.

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    1. Hi LeAnne,
      I'll look forward to that. She sounds very interesting.

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  6. Great insight, Paula. I never thought about that before, but I can see the connection. I love reading about other people and cultures, and definitely see how it can broaden our horizons.

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  7. That is so true! Thank you for pointing it out, Paula! It is amazing when we can pull ourselves, out of ourselves, and 'be' someone else. It reminds me of the 'Neverending Story' and how some books are 'safe'. But it also reminds me of how we can immediately develop compassion for others, even if we have not experienced such pains.

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  8. Thanks Paula. And there is plenty of evidence to back up the fact that reading fiction helps us empathise and improve our social skills. Fiction is important and so are fiction writers and readers.

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