What's the use of stories that aren't even true?

[Rancher1]

Some stories are to close to home to write them non fiction so you turn it into a fiction novel and write it from a third party perspective.

I feel fiction could be a great healer to the soul of the writer who writes it in many cases.

[uod_sa_libro]

Kinda reminds me of The Big Fish, too.

[Neil Griffiths]

Very interesting notion. Maybe the question should be reframed: why do we invent myths and fictions? It maybe that they aren't useful in the sense a tool is useful, but that only fiction can create the kind of connective tissue between people that they need (of course all art does this), and that there is too much specificity in the true.

[phontaine2010]

SOME PEOPLE HAVE GREAT IMAGINATION AND WHAT THEY COME UP WITH MIGHT NOT BE TRUE BUT FOR US READERS IS JUST GREAT ENTERTAINMENT.

[KristoffX]

Reminds me of the dad's quote in the movie "Sideways" when he is talking the man character about his novel. hahah

[sabrinassabrina]

I must say that one can learn a lot about people and life in general by reading a fictional book. It makes the learning easier, as we don't feel threatened by its contents.

[giselle]

I've been re-reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, and this quote really got me thinking. So, I wanted to see what other people thought.

'He's got his head stuck in the air and his feet off the ground. What are all these stories? Life is not a storybook or a joke shop. All this fun will come to no good. What's the use of stories that aren't even true?'

This is an interesting thread with great comments and I want to add a thought. Returning to this quote that started the thread, many people view fiction as primarily about fun, or entertainment but I have to agree with Suzanne's comment that reading fiction (although it can be fun) is about finding your own truth. Non-fiction professes to tell you the truth about something (almost by definition) but of course this is the truth as the author understands it and then attempts to communicate it to the reader. The non-fiction reader has the choice whether or not to accept the author's version of "truth" or "fact". This is fine but it is not as free flowing an experience as reading fiction where the reader can meander through and discover truth (or not) as they see fit. So, going back to Rushdie, it is not a question of the 'use of stories' in themselves, but rather the use or value of reading fiction as an activity where one is free to discover truth (or not).

[VMLM]

You know, Socrates used to disregard the works of poets, dramaturges and comedians because he felt they distorted the truth. He'd say that the ignorant and the incautious might take an author's interpretation as reality, driving them away from the truth and further into ignorance.
So that an author might describe a doctor at work while knowing nothing or very little about medicine; or describe a general in battle without having any idea of what a general actually does. He's afraid we'll fill our heads with an author's romantic conceptions, and never question his veracity.

It's certainly true... I mean, we should always take what we read or see or hear with a grain of salt; it's a lesson we all learn throughout life.
And yet that's the beauty of it too, right? We read fiction because it lets us explore a world beyond our own; it lets fight battles, live romances, pilot ships and solve mysteries... what would be the fun in fiction if we didn't buy into the author's romantic conceptions, at least a little?
And what's it really about? Fun, Empathy, Catharsis? Maybe, but is that really why we keep coming back to it? Fiction may not bring us closer to the truth, it may not teach us how to fly a plane or perform open heart surgery; but it lets us escape, it allows us a moment to reconsider and rethink. It lets us learn something about ourselves and of others, not because the book says so necessarily but because it brings out those things we already know and shows them to us in a new light.
The enjoyment of fiction depends as much on the reader as it does the writer; and what you take away from it depends as much on how you interpret it, as it does on what is actually written.

[lady of shallot]

Although I currently am reading mostly non-fiction the joy of fiction is in coming across a beautiful phrase, expression or observation or thought. There is a book I don't even like and did not finish reading (it was about fairies or people being carried away by fairies, ) that had some very beautiful language at the first. Anyone remember this book? It starts off in a Manhattan of the future and then moves to the nearby country side.

[President Camacho]

Manhattan and fairies... are u sure this wasn't non-fiction?