Fiction introduces you to people you would never meet otherwise →

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Fiction brings the reader experiences that they would have never expected to have. We step into a new reality where all our beliefs can be set aside and meet new people who can inspire or terrify us.

Will these fictional characters and experiences influence your self-identity? I think they will. Do they play a role in the narrative of how you see your life story? Again, I think they do. Does fiction have any redeeming value? Will its influence raise or lower our intelligence? There is plenty of evidence that it increases it.

You can talk to them about a broad range of subjects and new ideas, and different perspectives can be found. It sounds a lot like opening a book of fiction.

The first time I read William Faulkner’s fictional story, As I Lay Dying, it took me by surprise. I expected to enter a unique story line and learn about the people in Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, during the 1920s. Yet the conversation's language, tone, and sound were a surprise. The way the characters spoke to each other was different than anything I would ever have expected, and I knew I was in a different place. The way the characters interacted and sounded contributed to letting me see life differently.

I read Lia Genova’s book, Still Alice, because I wanted to learn more about what it was like to have Alzheimer’s disease. I hoped never to experience this for myself and saw this story as a way to understand the condition further. The story did much more than I expected, as I learned, but I also felt the impact of the disease. When Alice, a linguistics expert, began to lose her words and thoughts, I felt how hard it was for her.

Einstein suggested, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

Neil Gaiman is a writer of fantasy and fiction, and in his book The View from the Cheap Seats, he wrote about attending a meeting for fiction writers in China. In previous years, China didn’t allow fairy tales and fiction in their schools, so he was surprised to learn of this invitation. He asked an official what had changed and was told, off the record, that they had toured all the big companies they did outsourcing work for in the United States and asked those they met what they read. The resounding answer was science fiction. The officials then began to understand the connection of invention with creativity. (I guess it took a random event for them to figure this out.)

Einstein also said that creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist and that fairy tales are the childhood stimuli to this quality. I guess the Chinese officials didn’t read that before their trip.

There are good and bad guys in fiction, fairy tales, and horror stories. For some, the “Force” in Star Wars might represent the goodness in the universe, but what about that goodness? Will it reaffirm our beliefs while seeing our beliefs as an element of a fictional plot; does it make the fiction more believable? The bigger question is, can we really step out of our world, or are we just going always to view things through the lens of our experience?

Random events in books free me and leave me thinking I have escaped concluding outcomes from my lens of experience.

Do Authors reflect their way of thinking and reading to their own readers? →

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Do authors reflect their way of thinking and reading? It seems apparent that they would, and for that matter, that anyone would, but is a person who calls himself an author any different?

It becomes more apparent how much influence a person’s reading can create when we learn about their reading habits and books. I can see the results from my reading and past writing and the changes that have taken place in my writing. For example, I have often been asked if I have read all of the books in our house, which is about 2000, or if I have read all of those on the shelves in the library room, which is about 1500. I may have read nearly 1000 of them and some of them several times.

The alphabetical listing of books reviewed on this blog, “Brent M.. Jones - Connected Events Matter”, is around 400. I have tried not to include political books, books on religion, and many that I had read before 1998 on this site. I thought it best not to list books that might label me too close.

So yes, I have read many books, but compared to many people, maybe not so many. Stephen King said in an article that he had about 17,000 books in his library, and I’d bet he has read many of them.

My frequency of reading each year went up in 1998 when a friend told me the best book he had read was Louis L’Amour's "Education of a Wandering Man.” Before that, I had never read any of L’Amour’s books and had looked down on Western novels.

I read that book and was surprised at how much I learned from it. It was his autobiography and told of his travels as a young man and all the books he had read during that time. Wow! He read the most profound texts, and it just really surprised me. It inspired me. From that day forward, I kept closer tabs on what I was reading and started a list. Since then, I have read and liked some of Lamour’s Western novels.

When I consider the authors I admire, I can only guess what is in their libraries and how and why their reading habits have changed.

Einstein said that if you want your kids to be smart when they grow up, read them fairy tales. Pondering that opened another door in reading for me. I had yet to read a lot of fantasy or fiction.

I have to admit I now love reading Stephen King. He scares me at times, but I keep going back.  With all of the fiction he has written, it is a little surprising that his book, "On Writing," is one of the best I have read on that subject. This book changed the way I saw his books. The writing skill of this author jumps out at you in all his books.

Can I remember what is in all of the books in that section? No, but I find that they come back just looking at them, and thinking about one, brings several others back.

Some authors are so familiar that they become labels for us. For example: Darwinian, Shakespearean, or Orwellian imply things that most understand. Harold Bloom is a literary critic that knows all the older authors very well and likely could indicate labels of influence for them all. My goal is to be able to do the same and, in that way, have them come alive and even talk to me. 

C.S. Lewis said, “The good of literature is that we want to become more than ourselves; we want to see with others’ eyes, to imagine with others’ imaginations, to feel with others’ hearts, as well as our own.”

He also said we become a thousand men and yet remain ourselves. When it happens, you will feel renewed and reinvented.

What does seem clear is that reading opens our eyes, and we see ourselves and others more clearly.