Does reading fiction improve your ability to empathize with others?

It certainly can, depending on what you read.

>>8881539
Would you rather read or hang out with friends and have a hearty bout of laughter over a few good drinks and a decent game of poker?

>>8883197
>drinks
>poker
Eww, no thanks.
>bout of laughter
It's not a disease anon.

I'd rather be alone tbqh

>>8881539
Not if it's Ayn Rand.

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>>8883222

open your mind to objectivist thought with "The Virtue of Selfishness" my man

As Kant says, all info travels for our brain, ergo, all our reality is subjective. The idea that we do things for others is the great lie of western/society in general.

Be free my man, love, don't be a little bitch boy jk no but really read ayn rand

>>8883200
I can't really sympathize. There are mainly two types who surround the literature community, those who live life and write, and the ones who keep to themselves and read. I usually start writing because I like talking, and when there is no one around I speak to my self, sowing conversation and sating my need for socialization on a page.You see the aspirations of those readers who wish to write but never will or want to, since they were never meant to. Its a personality type, intrinsically innate.

>>8883226
That's fair, I can't disagree with that. Even in social situations I'm not a strong talker. I read more than I write because I don't feel any strong desire to communicate my thoughts or ideas, whether directly in person or indirectly through writing. I pretty much live in my head.

>>8883224

Are you sure you really read Kant? Because this seems the classic misinterpretation of Kant that high school students do after reading the two page summary on their textbook

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>>8883224

I read more books by women and minorities and it's helped me empathize a lot with their experiences (as a straight white guy). Made me sort of more of a sjw but one based around empathy rather than ideology.