The stigma of fiction

Last December, I went for a 3D2N staycation with my friends in KL, and I took that chance to stop by Bookxcess REXKL with a reading buddy of mine. We have similar preferences for books and shared a lot about books we read when we were students. While browsing the shelves, we caught up with each other, and I realized our preferences had changed over the past two years. Both of us. We both read self-help genre and prefer non-fiction over fiction, nerd, I know. As I still love self-help, I started to explore more classical fiction, and my friend has more interest in history. I then picked Great Expectations and Frankenstein, curious to learn more about two big-name writers in the world of classics. My friend peeked into my books, and maybe she was pretty shocked at how much my preferences had changed since she had last met me, said “merepek jelah (what a gibberish)” I was kind of offended, so I replied, “They’re classics!” thinking they’re on the next level of typical fiction.  

Suddenly, I am reminded of a similar situation in Kinokuniya with the other friend of mine. 

I spot this book at the clearance section; it’s classic fiction, obscure, RM 3, thought that I had nothing to lose. I picked McTeague. My friend wondered at my book choice and said, “pepelik je kau ni (such an odd choice),” holding The Offline Dating Method at RM 15.  

I don’t blame them, and I don’t want to judge them. In fact, I respect my friends a lot as they read much more than I do. But most of all, I used to have the same stigma as them. I was one of the readers who looked down on fiction too. I used to call novel “buku gedik-gedik (childish).” My thoughts of fiction were that it is cliche, gibberish, stupid, a waste of time, and adds no value.  

The Reading List was the first to change my mind. I fancy the idea of a list of books to live by, and each list is unique to every person, it feels very personal to me. But when I checked out the list, I was a bit disappointed with Sara Nisha’s choices of books. All of them are fiction. I was already read a lot of fiction by then, but it was sort of my guilty pleasure. I wasn’t really proud of what I read. But as I went through the book, I was fascinated with the comforts fiction brings to a person. It gave me a new perspective to reflect on.  

Fiction may not be as enriching, but we learn things differently from fiction than from non-fiction books. We’re living in such an overwhelming time, and bombarding ourselves with too much information is not helping, let alone misinformation; in fact, it messed up our minds. What we need is fewer facts but rich in knowledge and wisdom. Non-fiction gives us information, while fiction develops our ability to think.  

We’re all living in an age where there is too much information, less knowledge, and less wisdom and we need to find something that we’re familiar with to confide in. Something that we can relate to and pay attention to something seemingly abstract and elusive such as emotions. For that, we need stories and storytelling. -Elif Shafak, How to stay sane in an age of division. 

I love to connect with the characters, put myself in their shoes, and imagine the “what ifs” situation. In Sense and Sensibility, I find myself half of Elinor’s senses and half of Marianne’s sensibility but at the worst side of both. I didn’t understand Jane Eyre’s decision to reunite with Mr. Rochester, but in the end, I learned that Jane Eyre doesn’t care about what others think of her and only thinks what’s true for herself. In fact, I envy her self-confidence. The Vampire Diaries is about balancing the good and evil in a person.*sorry, but I can't get over this series

Reading fiction is never a fritter away time. Tale can have a significant social impact. While reading a novel, we’re transporting ourselves into the writer’s head, seeing the world through a character’s eyes, providing comforts to ourselves, and the most engageable medium with our real-life to reflect on. My favorite part about reading is whenever the writer cited wisdom from other writers without downgrading them. It feels like, in the end, we are all in one community.  

Fiction may have endless potential to bring value to your life, but not all fable is valuable, and not all non-fiction books are valuable either, and vice versa. In the end, we are the judge of what we read and what we believe. Be less judging, more understanding. Spread love and happiness