Fiction: Fact or Lie
So what is it about fiction that makes people so uncomfortable? I think a famous writer said it best… (sorry to slaughter…) but ‘me thinks the right wing bible beater doth protest too much.’
I went to see a recent movie release the other night only to be greeted by some religious fanatics protesting the film by standing outside the cinema with signs.
I understand standing up for something you believe in but what I have a hard time accepting is that these people actually know what they think. For starters, do they know that fiction is not ment to be taken as fact? It is a common practice for authors, IMHO, to use real events to lend a feeling of reality to works of fiction. This makes the ’suspended disbelief’ of the reader/viewer easier to practice. For a certain amount of entertainment, one can imagine something other than reality.
In any case, I keep hearing the argument that this story/movie/book is causing people to lose their faith. This too boggled my mind until just now. It finally hit me, as I was typing this, that people who have little ability to think for themselves could be easily mislead by someone who can create a crafty, some what believable story. It would not be right, moral, or ethical to take advantage of people in such a inferior capacity. They need to be protected. They need to be told what is right and what is wrong. They need to be shown how to live a better life. How to not be … How to watch a movie about cartoon characters, depicted as real people, with godlike powers, and then go to church the next day and pontificate about the evils of fictional stories that mislead people into beliving something so obviously untrue that they can’t realize it for themselves…
-Who Said Life is Fair
Uncouth
Filed under: Uncategorized