Some really strong views in here. I’ll tackle a few of the ones aimed directly at me:
Your childhood must have been a bit hard too.
Not the best, but i don’t like to use it to excuse my shortcomings (personal, intellectual, professional, whatever.)
This has to be a troll. Surely no one can sit and think about this topic and conclude that? Not liking fiction fair enough, but to consider the creative urge unnecessary? Has to be a troll…..
Erm… I gather a Troll is someone who deliberately makes outrageous statements to generate a response..? Well it certainly wasn’t intended that way. Perhaps i should have used the caveat ‘in my opinion’.
I assume “fiction” in this context is confined to novels only. So what is their view on poetry? Or satire?
I’ve had relatively little exposure to Poetry. That said, i have enjoyed the ones i have read, mostly from an appreciation of the use of language / linguistics.
Satire is, in my opinion, drawn from fact and used to influence fact. I don’t really see that as fiction.
No fiction makes you firmly non religious then
Correct. Although that is clearly another can-of-worms for another day.
Since this is a thread is a discussion in ethics, where does the OP stand on theoretical physics? Or philosophical treatises?
Physics (as all science) is simply an observation of the natural environment around us, and tries to use the knowledge gained in order to better understand the world around us (i realise this is an overly-simplistic view, but i think it fits the context). Therefore, Theoretical Physics simply extends those models to try and rationalise the parts of the natural world we don’t yet understand. I can sort of see how this is related to fiction, however it is ultimately using facts to try and understand more facts.
(I’m not a physicist. Or a scientist. Or an academic.)
No ‘Orlando’
No ‘Hamlet’
No ‘Old Man and The Sea’
No ‘The Little Prince’
No ‘Three Men in A Boat’
No ‘Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You’
No ‘Breakfast of Champions’
No ‘Odyssey’
No ‘Snow Falling On Cedars’
No ‘A Christmas Carol’
I’ve never read any of those (perhaps i should be embarrassed?)
The other point being missed by the OP is that a factual book is based on actual events recorded by someone else, so viewed from their perspective then arranged in a nice story by the writer, adapted by their editor etc
I understand what you’re saying, but the fact remains; the events in question took place. You are simply reading an author’s interpretation of a real event, as opposed to (in the case of pure fiction) an author’s interpretation of an imaginary event.
Ok, let’s not criticise the OP too much here. In condemning him for his closed mind you are simply showing your own closed minds!
As Terry Pratchett once said – ‘The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.’ [/irony]
If you were looked up for a week in a room with the Yellow Pages, and a copy of War and Peace, which would you read ? Accepting your premise that War and Peace was a and continues to be a total waste of a lot of people’s time.
Lets compare apples with apples here; if i were to choose between ‘War and Peace’, and a historical account of the 1812 French invasion of Russia, i would choose the latter. Put simply, i am interested in learning about history – imaginary love stories simply don’t interest me at all (excuse me for being slightly patronising / flippant there).
Not trying to be funny, and less so insulting, but isn’t this an indicator of a situation on the autism spectrum?
I’ve never thought about it. I certainly don’t seem to have any symptoms of what i know of Autism. Perhaps a professional might see it differently.
I’ll stop – this post is already massive!
