That’s not to underestimate the importance of nonfiction. Facts are useful, but facts change. And facts aren’t always… well, fact, are they? Opinion can be debated but cannot be proven… facts are hard information that can be proven or disproven. In other words, facts can be false.
When fiction resonates, however, it catches us some place deep within our hearts and psyche… that place where we know truth, not as a fact, but as a place of understanding and peace. Because fiction does not claim to be anything other than what it is, it has the ability to touch us in this place more profoundly than the factual nature of nonfiction, which busies itself with telling us rather than inspiring our intuitive side. Perhaps this is why memoirs, or creative non-fiction, have become so popular. They take life and weave it into a story that encompasses all of the best parts of fiction… all those parts that touch us on the places we so desperately need stirred in this fast-paced world where facts (whether true or false) are readily available.
Whether in myself, or with my children, I can feel how stories weave new unimaginable thought patterns. There’s something special in the way fiction opens the brain to draw its own conclusions and make new connections.
As my friend and fellow Mind Key Member, Grace ngDung said while discussing the merits of an evening spent watching Harry Potter movies, “It’s funny, during this period [of my life] I was thinking that nonfiction is actually applicable and more relevant [than fiction], but that was my logical, left brained shadow talking. [While watching Harry Potter] I was reminded of how powerful and potent stories and art really are.”It was during this same conversation that I told her, “I realized I don’t really want to write nonfiction anymore because fiction is far more powerful motivator and inspiration for creativity and insight.”
And it’s true. Although my work in the nonfiction realm of health is essential in many ways, it’s my work writing Mind Key the Novel that is more powerful and profound.
Does fiction parallel life, then?
I don’t know… Perhaps it is more accurate to say that fiction is life.
What are your thoughts? And what works of fiction have stirred or moved you?
My Family and other Animals...... but by and large I prefer non fiction to motivate me creatively.....are you surprised?
ReplyDeleteWait! I am surprised, nonfiction motivates you more than fiction does? I believe that only if you're talking myths and folklore! Then again, I can see how the study of life motivates you to create it in a way people have never seen before. I've never read "My Family and other Animals." I'll have to check it out!
DeleteUnfairly I haven't shared a piece of fiction that stirred me... and I have to say the one that jumps clearly to mind is "Memoirs of a Geisha," which I literally lived for the three or four days I was reading it. At times I had to give myself a shake to remind myself I was not living in Japan in the early 1900s. I subsequently read "Geisha: A Life" the memoir of the woman whom "Memoirs" was based off of, and I fell even more in love with the memoir. Today I have a chest full of kimonos and other traditional Japanese clothing that I horded after reading those books. Love!
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