What DOES fiction do?

We use fiction as a map for what to do in our own lives. Using what characters do as inspiration for situations we have run into in the past, problems we're dealing with now, or future problems.

>>9570913
Do you have autism?

it allows us to experience something. that experience obviously depends on what you're reading, but real-life experience alters you, so can a fictional experience

>>9570913
It's a simulacre. That's old and french-sounding so you can feel like your need for cleverness has been fulfilled while you get back to your escapism

>>9570913
pretty sure it clarifies thoughts for the writer and helps them to become .00X% more articulate than they were the day before. sometimes people pay $$ for these clarified thoughts also

but pretty much i think the point is for a writer (that is to say, literally anyone) to brainificate some and write it

>>9570913
its supposed to uncover some truth. whether that truth is about itself or the world is a whole ideological battle unto itself

>>9570913
Fiction is moral. Stories and narratives were originally invented to teach moral values to help social bonding, the modern novel is just another form of this. Every great writer tries to make his readers into better people through art.

Take real life.

Take away the unimportant parts like your morning routine, commute, bathroom visits.

Possibly take shortcuts using things not possible in real life like magic depending on genre to make the story go even quicker.

End up with a story about life distilled down to its important parts for the sake of brevity. This story will almost without exception take place along some sort of narrative that teaches you how to act in the world.

We relate to and understand human beings, so fiction allows an author to impact the reader on a very personal, intimate level.

Reveal to us through the use of aesthetic and mood the inner emotional logic of the situations and people that make up our lives, usually adding some philosophical insight resulting from the speculative aspect inherent to fictional narratives

>>9570913
Let's see what the claims are.
>Molecule soup claims of {molecule soup} that it is more, or that it has more
What is a falsehood to a materialist? Different balance of chemicals? Kek.

Truth has the structure of a fiction, anon. Everything we say, whether we think it is true or not, if it uses this or that artifice and so on, is put out of ourselves first of all as a story. It can only perform its role if the people think they understand that language, that syntax, that thread of thought that links those words. We all understand them differently, but by these connections we sustain our social world. I say the sky is blue, you say the sky is blue, the question whether we see the same blue is not important to the question of whether we agree with the name we give it. Next time we see the word blue, we will both think of the sky and assume the other is doing the same. That's how a language sustains itself (even though it's never still), that's also how a given context separates itself from another, like how university papers may be hard to read to a lot of people, or how jokes can go over people's heads, or how you feel lost when people are talking of a show you didn't watch.

When a writer writes, he produces a new combination of words. The words are the same, but the combination is new. Not only of words, but of phrases and situations, scenarios, more or less abstract, fantastical, historical, conclusive, elusive, etc. He is building new relationships between words.

When someone is writing non-fiction, the words seem to be connected with the history of the world, with events you recognize from experiences in life, it corresponds to what you see, but also (and it's important) to the words you've read in other news and non-fiction texts. You update your own story, use them to formulate your own narrative of what goes on with your world, even if it is unsaid.

When someone is writing fiction, the words are not there directly corresponding to the news and to the events you've heard that happened. But the combination is still new and still refreshes the words around your head, you never hear the words with the same meaning twice. Again, not only words, but situations, characters, and so on. You recognize some of them in your own life, though some seem fresh new, but if you relate to it enough so that the sentences have meaning, they are also playing a role in the names you give to the experiences and things around you.

>>9570913
That because you probably finished something that matters and not reddit genre fiction.

>>9570924
Literally almost quoting Jordan Peterson.
I think he has some good ideas but you're just spouting what he says word for word- turning his lectures into cliches.

>>9571391
Someone listens to peterson

>>9572707
his lectures are cliches already what
>>9571437
I don't mean to be a dick and I'm sure there are a lot of great ideas in this. I really do, but, I've never seen a less attractive wall of text in my life jsyk.

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>muh moral lessons

And there are people who have the audacity to claim that peterson is not shilled by retarded redditors. Stupid dumb didacticist scum.

>>9572761
this is the worst kind of post you can even make. it'd be better if you posted child porn

>>9572765

nice try pedo

>>9572753
His lectures are a presentation of ideas put forward by philosophers and other psychologists.
So it's not quite the definition of a cliche but I see him as some one who connects theories, historical events, ideologies and lets you make your mind up about what they mean. (He does talk shit on postmodernism too often though which bores me).

Fiction is morally and philosophically (and aesthetically, if that makes sense) instructive, whether you want it to be or not.

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>>9572707
He's not wrong.

>>9570924
fpbp & cribbing Peterson, who is not terrible as pseuds with intellectual affectations say


>>9570950
This is also correct.

>>9570913
Only people without vision see fiction as mere escapism. Fiction done well, when read by a thoughtful person, helps the reader discover something about themselves by this process: reading, reacting, observing the reaction, judgment/questioning self. Any story can do this when read by a thoughtful reader, just some stories are more applicable to the times and audience. Fiction is the actual red pill. Follow the white rabbit.

>>9573216
Guess one really shouldn't watch TV.

>>9573320
"no shit"

>ITT
>Reeee stop quoting Peterson who was written extensively about the purpose of fiction!
>I don't have an argument but stop using his arguments!

>>9570913
Plato was firmly against theater, here's one of his arguments against fiction:

"Ion: [...] For I must frankly confess that at the tale of pity my eyes are filled with tears, and when I speak of horrors, my hair stands on end and my heart throbs.

Socrates: Well, Ion, and what are we to say of a man who at a sacrifice or festival, when he is dressed in an embroidered robe, and has golden crowns upon his head, of which nobody has robbed him, appears weeping or panic-stricken in the presence of more than twenty thousand friendly faces, when there is no one despoiling or wronging him--is he in his right mind or is he not?

Ion: No indeed, Socrates, I must say that, strictly speaking, he is not in his right mind.

Socrates: And are you aware that you produce similar effects on most of the spectators?" (Plato, Ion 15)

>>9573735
Wherein I btfo Socrates:

Socratic dialogues ARE THEATRE. Socrates takes the interlocutor on a journey through his arguments and hypotheticals, sometimes provoking an emotional response, standing before or among a crowd. He uses language to make others feel what they did not before, and his narrative reveals truths that edify the audience.

Socrates in your example spoke against base escapism, but he did use fiction as a tool.

>>9570932
If you did not understand his feelings about it, which means having minimum empathy, then I must unfortunately inform you of your high possibilities of having autism yourself.

>>9573773
Well there's a common interpertration that says that Plato only wrote like that to prove his words. He despite artits and yet we see how he can be one of the finests of them, and just to prove a point.

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>>9571284
>Take away the unimportant parts like your morning routine, commute, bathroom visits.

>>9575037
lmao

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>>9575037
you are describing NEETdom my man

>>9570913
Fiction is the most direct line to another person's thoughts. Without realizing it, even bad writers indicate their thinking in the writing of a single sentence.

>>9573216
>instructive
Autismo christfag detected. A depiction is not an endorsement.

>>9575620
> A depiction is not an endorsement.

Isn't it? Presumably one shares an idea because they deem it worthy of an audience and consideration.

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>>9570913
>because whenever I finish reading a novel I feel like an altered person.

Do you feel this way after James Patterson's works too?