Reading fiction is pointless it’s make believe it has no bearing on our day-to-day life and therefore is a complete waste of time I’d rather read non-fiction things that I can put straight into practice than silly stories about people who never existed have you ever thought said or
Even heard someone say those things and perhaps you’ve heard it and not been able to elucidate a satisfying response to give a real meaningful reason as to whether fiction does have value well in this video that’s what we’re going to be look at looking at so without further
Ado let’s dig in shall we I’ll say at the start that this video is not an argument for reading more fiction than non-fiction or that you have to read fiction not at all if you prefer non-fiction that’s fine we’re all in individuals but what this video is to do
Though is to highlight the value of fiction because there is sort of an imbalance going on in the cultural um climate at the moment that seems to denigrate the value of various parts of the Arts I heard a very wealthy businessman on social media make a
Comment he says he the only books he reads are non-fiction books howto books he never reads fiction because it’s a waste of time but he reads books that will give him a practical bit of information that he can use to achieve his goals and progress in
Life now I agree with him to a large extent that if you want to progress and hit certain goals and you require certain skills then you should be reading and setting aside time to read practical information I disagree with him though on saying that fiction is useless the problem is most
People don’t know why it’s not useless we’ve sort of lost our connection to a degree with much of the Arts of literature and fiction being one of them so in this video if you’re a person that’s just curious about the way the world works the way we as humans work
You might want to watch this video to the end because I’m going to lay out um just why fiction is beneficial to you and I’m not talking about strengthening your brain and all that but something that it can actually give you that is of high high value and as we go through and
I’ll try and keep this short I’m going to use three excerpts from fiction to highlight the point so stick with me fiction can do a number of things particularly well which are of high value for any human being one of those things is it can heighten your sense of
Where you belong in the whole scheme of things your place along the street dream of Time and Eternity your space your place in the vast Cosmos secondly fiction can give you a Keener appreciation of the environment that you see dayto day and a Keener appreciation
Of your own thoughts of which we have a myriad now those two lead into one bigger hole and it’s this fiction tells us what it is to be human now anyone watching this who’s not big on fiction will probably say I know what it’s like
To be human I know what my thoughts are I know what the environment is around me perhaps of course we all do to a degree but if you are an engineer say you may look at some work of engineering and you can point to a friend and say oh this is brilliant the
Way that this is put together and that person may say yeah yeah it is yeah and you know they’re not an engineer and you know they don’t see it as deeply as you do they don’t have as much grasp well the same comes with the Arts just like
An engineer can appreciate the workings and the genius behind a mechanism so people of an artistic inclination can often see deeper through the world that they inhabit and that brings a certain amount of Joy which all of us could benefit from now I’ll give you an example of the difference between fiction and
Non-fiction right here and then we’re going to look at the three excerpts from fiction I read a book uh a non-fiction book a while ago all about laughter the science of laughter it had abundant studies and probings and prodding all to do with laughter you know what was
Really remarkable about that book was how unfunny it was you see you can go to a book for how to tell a joke and none of that will be amusing but the joke will be and so that’s the difference between the fiction of a joke and the technical
Aspect of a joke take another example what does it feel like being in love well you can scientifically um study the chemicals that make us feel love you can show how they affect the the nervous system you can philosophize about what love is you can interview people but
None of it will tell you what it feels like to be in love in fact it’s subjective where howto information non-fiction as a rule in Broad terms is objective it has to hold up to scrutiny and test and repeatability fiction doesn’t and our existence as human beings is subjective
Of course we have to apply by objective laws and parameters but our personal perception of the world around us is subjective and imagine becoming as skillful with your ability to see and perceive what existence means what it feels like just like a scientist can understand the most deep workings of
Physics or chemistry and can then make some great work of Technology out of it now what do I mean by this and how does fiction do it well that’s what I’m going to show you next to start with I want to share with you a really curious insight
Into fiction and literature which you’ll immediately recognize is true but may never have noticed it before so in the world of literary criticism there was a group of thinkers who came to be known as the formalists and they used to like studying the form and structure of fiction particularly in poetry
And they came to recognize something and it was this that the written word is not the same as the spoken word now you might think well yeah okay I recognize that but really pause and think about what that means the formalist said that the written word uses structure of
Language which is almost designed to draw attention to itself you know if I were to quote quot the beginning of Richard III now is the winter of our discontent me glorious Summer by this son of York no one not even in Shakespeare’s day would have spoken quite like that um so why does
Literature do it well this is one of its key skills this is one of the forms of art affecting us as human beings helping us understand what it means to exist to appreciate just the way we work mysteriously within our our elves by drawing attention to itself fiction forces you to consciously
Connect with your thoughts you see we have thoughts all the time through the day don’t we we’re constantly rapidly walking past things we’re constantly making judgments we our thoughts go off Here There and Everywhere we’re we’re stopped mid thought and come back to it later most of us don’t really hold on to
A thought for a long time but fiction draws attention to itself the way it’s structured and asks you to actually consider as a solid concrete full colored thought to hold on to it and structure it in your mind to see it and when it does that it allows you to see
The world now I’d like to share with you a small excerpt from Sherlock Holmes which highlights this point so just before the little bit we’re going to look at I’ll tell you what’s happened Sherlock Holmes has just seen Watson walk through the door he said oh I
Noticed you’ve lost about sounds and he also tells him you have a servant at home who’s a bit um miffed at the minute a bit annoyed and it’s you’ve been walking where it’s wet now Watson says how on Earth can you possibly know that and Sherlock Holmes explains how he knows just by
Looking and then this is what said in the book Watson says I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his process of deduction when I hear you give your reasons I remarked the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself
Though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you explain your process and yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours quite so he answered lighting a cigarette and throwing himself down into an armchair you see but you do not observe the distinction is clear for
Example you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room frequently how often well some hundreds of times then how many are there how many I don’t know quite so you have not observed and yet you have seen did you enjoy that it’s quite a
Lovely snippet of writing isn’t it but did you see how it relates to our topic does it relate to fiction and how it helps us to see the world around us well it does and I’ll demonstrate this I shared the same point with someone that
I worked with once I said oh people see but they don’t observe and the person with me went yeah yeah that’s true that is right and I could tell they didn’t appreciate what had just been said it seemed so simple that they thought they knew it anyway I thought I’ll I’ll try
Something and I got them to read um a scandal in Bohemia which is where this is from well I saw them the next time at work and they were raving about Sherlock Holmes and oh yeah honestly we don’t we we see but we don’t observe do we do you
See the difference I had said something casually um which wasn’t in the fictitious form in words that weren’t bringing attention to themselves and they just washed straight through somebody but when they read it in the place of a piece of fiction the words Drew attention to it
It forced them to hold on to a clear thought and that lits something up a light of recognition in life in their mind now you could say okay but Sherlock Holmes actually is quite factual um because he really is if you’ve never read him read him you will want to be
Just just like him however what the fiction does is instead of a lesson on how to use psychology how to do abduction and deductive reasoning what the fiction does is it allows you to almost be Sherlock Holmes it allows you to at least be Watson and
Stand in the presence of a master genius investigator that’s experiential that is something that just being taught how to be an investigator can’t give you the sheer wonderment and awe of being Sherlock in those days so do you see what I mean about it draws attention to itself and then it gives
You a heightened sense of where you are in the world the the greatness that is you and that Keen appreciation of the environment we live in now we’re going to do a little bit more observing instead of seeing now by just looking at two more Snippets from books um the next
One I want to share with you is from Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native now Hardy is quite big on describing scenery and a lot of people go oh why do I have to read you know a whole paragraph describing a hill the reason I hope you’re already appreciating is because we’re being
Taught to observe not just see to actually get a flavor of things so I’ll just give you the background to the excerpts just a single paragraph um that we’re about to read it’s to do with the fact that this is November it’s going to be cold winter is about to come in and
Humans are preparing fires and this is set in the late 19th century you know it’s time to like the bonfires for bonfire night in in Britain that’s Sky folks night um and then everyone’s going to start bringing in Fires for their homes we’ve all seen a fire but have we
Observed it have we observed how we as human beings feel about it the miracle that is us fighting the elements well just listen to this one paragraph moreover to light of fire is the instinctive and resistant Act of man when at the winter Ingress the curfew is sounded throughout nature it indicates a
Spontaneous Promethean rebelliousness against the be yet that this recurrent season shall bring foul times Cold Darkness misery and death Black Chaos comes and the fettered gods of the earth say let there be light what an amazing do you appreciate the Rhythm in that do you appreciate the imagery in that Thomas Hardy
Here has grabbed the inner depths of of how fire mesmerizes us how it elevates us to a Godlike state it gave us a sense of our resistance against Nature’s wild um and Untamed Behavior or presence and yet he could have just said well when winter comes people get fires and switch on lights
And torches and stuff that seeing it’s not observing that is knowing what happens around you that’s knowing that fire Heats when there is cold and cold could cause hypothermia see that’s non-fiction what this is is what it means to be in that moment of lighting the fires so it says
Like the winter Ingress at the winter Ingress so winter is coming into the year and it says the curfew is sounded throughout nature a curfew is an enforced um removal from the public sphere and of course for hedgehogs and bears and all that they go and hibernate
They have to because of the cold now humans would have to hibernate too if they couldn’t find heat some way and as you notice he says fire is a spontaneous prometheum rebelliousness well you may not know who Prometheus is but let’s assume we do Prometheus he stole fire from the gods
And gave it to humans it was an act of rebellion and the humans using it they’re using a Godlike power so what it’s saying is despite Untamed nature coming at us with all its Force we rebel against it it comes with cold we make fire and stick it back it calls
Um the winter a fat fat is a law it’s more than a law it’s an unalterable irrevocable command when the storm cloud wishes to snow there’s nothing you can do to stop it kind of thing when the wind blows at you you have to be buffeted when winter comes cold will
Come but we Rebel as these Earth chained Gods by making fire if you were to go and read that little bit back again even if you’re not into fiction but if you go and read it slowly the way the words are put draw attention to themselves and they force
You if you’re if you pay attention they force you to look at them and then as you look at them You observe something about what it means to be a human it’s subjective it’s true but you’ll experience it in a slightly different way to everybody else and it will maybe
Kindle no pun intended a smile inside you a deep awe of what it means to be you right now um our Mastery over our environment or that constant struggle and the beauty of that struggle and the happiness of triumphing maybe you’ll get a sense of the Warm Glow of the fire and
Think of fond memories from childhood or with or times with good friends during winter that is observing who you are do you see why fiction is so good but non-fiction can also give you a very great Insight appreciation or of nature your environment around you
Of course it can you know if you study insects um I met someone who studed insects entomologist and you know they’re in Wonder at the engineering of insect Wings their legs and all that kind of stuff um so you can get appreciation without fiction of course but what this gives you is an
Understanding of what’s going on in you what it means to be but fiction does go one little step further and that is it gets hold of thoughts and emotions the writing of fiction is an act of self-expression and I’m talking good fiction here it’s an act of self-expression it’s a shouting out of
The Soul into the universe but it’s we can capture it and hold it it’s like being able to capture an emotion like a firefly in a bottle and C it up and take a look at it that’s what fiction can do I’ll give you another example with our last excerpt
Now this excerpt strangely comes from an extremely funny book it’s from three men in the boat which um I think next month or the month after we’re discussing in my patreon community if you would want to join in in that but in this our narrator who’s called Jay he’s looking
At an area near the temps river that is so idilic and beautiful and paradisaical it’s just and the sun is shining down and he describes that this spot used to have a monastery on it where the cian monks would stay there and they would read they would learn the things they
Would read would be philosophy would be religion would be science um everything was non-fiction funnily enough and yet you know they later die in everything because that was hundreds of years before him listen now to what this narrator says in this bit of fiction about the San monks who are a
Brotherhood a grim fraternity passing Grim lives in that sweet spot that God had made so bright strange that Nature’s voices all around them the soft singing of the waters the whisperings of the river grass the music of the rushing wind should not have taught them a truer
Meaning of life than this they listened there through the long days in silence waiting for a voice from heaven and all day long and through the solemn night it spoke to them in Myriad tones and they heard it not now isn’t that a delicious piece of writing an observation of Humanity of
Being in existence and narrator is simply saying these men devoted their time to learning to constantly progressing to find an understanding to get to the next goal in fact they wouldn’t even speak silence was important to them and Yeti said it’s funny we’re in such a delightful Sunny Spot with the look at
The movement of the grasses listen to the water babbling away the sound of the wind in the trees which by the way someone with a tuned ear can tell you what tree it is with their eyes closed just by the sound of the wind passing through it when it’s in full Leaf did
You know that could be done now that’s observing okay or that’s hearing as opposed to listening now what makes this a great piece of writing is because as Fiction it’s drawing attention to itself no one would say to you standing looking at where a monaster be a grim fraternity
Passing Grim lives in that sweet spot that God had made so bright no one would say that not in common language but in a book you can and it forces you now to concentrate on it to hold the image it also has a much stronger Force because it is
Infiction and it’s this this is a key critical Insight now and if you’re someone that likes to know how things work you’re like this one facet that fiction has which is so powerful so scarily powerful and why books are burned is it is invidious now invidious sneaky creeping
Sly you know it’s like it’s normally said in um an evil way isn’t it invidious is when something hits us without our awareness something creeps up on us it it gets through the security so in our life we live with our morals and with our beliefs as if our flesh
Were brass impregnable and nothing can get in and in our eyes that our eyes are like cannons staring out of the port holes ready to you know be aware of anything that contradicts our understanding and we do resist it we don’t let things come in fiction does get in you see when someone
Comes and tries to contradict us we resist when someone may present evidence we like to think we respond to evidence but often we resist when we read a story what happens is we allow this character to come into our mind almost dressed in the clothing of our own personal guards
And so they walk through the Fortress of our mind and our body and they open us up from the inside because through a story we get to experience what it’s like to be another character we are living we’re not just analyzing we’re being human we’re taking along because we
Recognize the humanity in the character and then if they have certain beliefs and ideas they’ve got into our head invidiously that is a remarkable remarkable attribute of fit that it can just so slightly get into your thinking and erode corrupt or change your thoughts for the better or
For the worse that is just Exquisite isn’t it so in conclusion let’s ask the really important question why does fiction matter well the answer is really simple and I hope you take this to Heart fiction is not untruth it’s not pure make believe it is very real nonfiction helps us to do
Helps us to achieve non-fiction teaches us the wonderful inner mechanisms and greater mechanisms that make up this wonderful universe but fiction as one of the Arts teaches us what it means to be human to see the miracle that is your existence your Consciousness your identity non-fiction could show us a photograph
As Blobs of color and how they interact the fiction that you see from that is that you can grasp the emotion from a person’s face through those colors and yet that’s inexplicable non-fiction can teach you how to make someone fall in love with you to be on the pole but only f ition
Can give the words to say to your truest love that you are as rich in having such a jewel as 20 Seas if all their sand were Pearl the water nectar and the Rocks purest gold non-fiction taught K Sean to say me and this oak tree are made of the same
Stuff but fiction tells you that the meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you will never sit you see it captures in this sweet quintessence of a droplet a moment of what it means to be alive and when you read through a piece of good fiction you may find yourself
With that sudden expanding of the Soul as you just see The Wonder of living and then your spirit just races forth to join all of its Playmates in this place we call home so fiction really does matter in fact a life without beauty without love and without meaning is a poor life
Indeed and those things can never be nailed down in non-fiction but fiction and other works of the great Arts they are how we as humans understand just how we feel and they give us Beauty and happiness and sometimes meaning I hope that you have enjoyed this video
If you have please remember to subscribe and if you could share this with others I would really appreciate it in fact if you’re a teacher maybe share this with um students to help them understand why it’s important to even look at literature as a lesson um because it’s
Very valuable it’s the way we’re taught When We’re Young that makes all the difference to whether we can get in touch with a certain topic or lose the value of a certain topic anyway until the next time I wish you Joy in whatever you read
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