Fiction lies like truth

#Fiction by definition is the type of book or story which is written about imaginary characters and events and not based on real people and facts. Yet it is something much more loved than a realistic narration of events. Therefore, much literary talent caters to the youngster as well as the adult in their need for excitement in unreachable realms.  Fiction is the vehicle through which this need is fulfilled. Adults, as much as children, love experiencing things which are very difficult to believe in. Fiction makes the reader SEE and therefore make them believe for that moment what might otherwise seem impossible. Why do people want to experience the impossible or unlikely?

The world we live in is not always good and beautiful. We want a change even if it is not the thing that normally comes easily. Hardship and monotony rule our lives. Hence, whenever something out of the way turns up we want to stop and look at it. Writers of fiction know how vital it is to turn the reader’s imagination and eye toward the romanticized picture of unreality; toward a situation, which is unlikely or improbable. We want to see the impossible happening. That is why tricksters and magicians are interesting for us. Spectacles are pleasing because we don’t normally see them. Ghosts, witches, and fairies will catch our imaginations because we do not normally see them in our lives.

Fiction is, therefore, a necessity of sorts; it serves a human need. Routine happenings are not good for the mind that has already had an overdose of tedium. Fiction draws the mind away from boredom, towards excitement.

Even within fiction there are many types and the ones that are romantic and magical appeal to that appetite which hungers for the improbable. Fairy tales, fantasies, magical realism, science fiction, horror stories and the like, will never die out. They can go out of vogue for some time but will always keep returning. The reader will always allow himself to be fooled, or let his logic and reason be taken for a ride by the writer.

These extra-rational modes of fiction are popular also because they make the adult feel like a child; reduced to the elemental state in which the mind is arrested and the spirit soars. The adult allows himself to be happily duped into believing the impossible (the unreal) that is served before him by the writer. Long live fiction!