Distributed Mind

Some more thoughts in a fairly rough state:

I know I have been writing a lot lately about fiction. This fact obscures one more essential fact, though: I hate fiction. And the more I have been thinking about fiction (both as a consumer and producer) lately, the more I am reminded at this moment why I don't like fiction. The biggest reason is that fiction sucks me in, but it isn't real. Obvious, I know. But there is a serious temptation to either retreat into fictional worlds (even if pretending to be a serious author or somesuch nonsense - I mean in my case, I don't mean to doubt anyone else's seriousness) or to try to shape the real world to fit some idealized model from fiction. Of course, that's part of the point of epics, but I think I, and many other people, are not necessarily always getting the epic points out of epics. I tend to see the drama in epics instead (e.g. my favorite part of The Iliad, at least in Fagles' version, is the scene where Achilles kills Lycaon - not a particularly "epic" or universal scene by any means). But anyway, the real question is, if fiction doesn't make us better people, what's the point? First there is the possible corrupting influence that excessively visceral stories can exert on us to consider, then there is the possibity we end up spending too much time reading (or thinking about - possibly a greater danger) fiction and fictional settings. These are hardly reasons to make us banish all fiction automatically, but I think someimes we - even I who never drop the point... - are too cavalier about fiction.

Having just complained about fiction, as always, I still have to look at the value of science fiction short stories. In a way Asimov's robot stories, say, are not so much fiction as much logic puzzles. Clarke and Asimov spend their fair time doing ethics, philosophy, logic, and science - not that they don't also waste time on less profound things, unfortunately (I think Clarke made his point about pokygamy the first time, let alone the next however many...). Science fiction short stories then might be the "exception that proves the rule" or a sign of blatant bias on my part (which is not all that likely since my point is that I like some fiction too much).

On a parallel note, and something I forgot to mention last time, one of the peculiar things about epics in our cultural context is that Christianity, like many religions, already has an epic - in content not form - at its root. Of course, it is hard to adapt something like that to be an epic in form, in large part because of the difficulties in fictionalizing the actions and words of God. Milton's work in this area (thinking of Paradise Lost) only goes to prove the point (I am one of those who thinks he failed badly). And when truth is stranger than fiction, who needs fiction? (This is why I had begun to think that biography would be far more useful than fiction, though it has its limitations in other ways. That's the problem with humans being human - they're not ideal.)