This I Believe
I believe in the importance of reading fiction.
Since I was a little girl, I have read an uncountable number of books, both fiction and non-fiction. Each book has changed my life in little ways. My most memorable early experience with the power a novel can have over a person was when I was eleven years old and I read "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'engle. I remember reading it and being in complete awe of how emotionally affected I was by this little novel. Not only was I affected emotionally though, it also had a huge influence over the rest of my life up to this point. L'engle's novel was the reason I decided to major in astrophysics because of how she based her theories of the fourth and fifth dimensions off of Einstein's theories of relativity.
On smaller scales, books can change our view of human nature, society as a whole, and even ourselves. I remember reading "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis, a book themed around grief and loss, but also redemption. It made me reexamine my attitude and strengthened my perseverance through hard times. Another book that I was largely influenced by was "The Spinal Chord Perception" by Josh "Dies" Porter. It's themed largely around human nature by examining the clinically insane. Although it sounds drastic (and I don't have a lot of experience with the clinically insane, fortunately), this novel adjusted my view of myself and my view of humanity as a whole.
I believe that fiction uses "lies" (or to put it gentler, fictional characters and situations) to tell us something about the human condition. Each story raises both moral and ethical questions that are sometimes hard to answer, but important to ponder. For example if I read a science fiction story about an alien race invading Earth and all of humanity uniting together to fight it, I would ask, "Is an intergalactic threat the only way humanity would unite together? How would I contribute to this event? What kind of person am I?"
Also, beyond using fiction for examining ourselves and others, science fiction and fantasy greatly influence innovation. Most of our technology that we use today, if not all, was at one point a piece of a science fiction story. After all, everything is conceptual before it is physically created, right? This is just another reason I believe fiction is so important. Where would we be without authors like Jules Verne (first envisioned the submarine), HG Wells (first man to describe what we know today as the Internet in his novel "The Invisible Man"), or the perhaps lesser known Neal Stephenson (had the idea for a virtual reality in his novel "Metaverse").
In short, I believe in the importance of reading fiction. I believe exposure to far-fetched ideas in both children and adults can greatly effect their view of themselves, their view of humanity as a whole, and their imagination and ability to innovate.
Since I was a little girl, I have read an uncountable number of books, both fiction and non-fiction. Each book has changed my life in little ways. My most memorable early experience with the power a novel can have over a person was when I was eleven years old and I read "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'engle. I remember reading it and being in complete awe of how emotionally affected I was by this little novel. Not only was I affected emotionally though, it also had a huge influence over the rest of my life up to this point. L'engle's novel was the reason I decided to major in astrophysics because of how she based her theories of the fourth and fifth dimensions off of Einstein's theories of relativity.
On smaller scales, books can change our view of human nature, society as a whole, and even ourselves. I remember reading "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis, a book themed around grief and loss, but also redemption. It made me reexamine my attitude and strengthened my perseverance through hard times. Another book that I was largely influenced by was "The Spinal Chord Perception" by Josh "Dies" Porter. It's themed largely around human nature by examining the clinically insane. Although it sounds drastic (and I don't have a lot of experience with the clinically insane, fortunately), this novel adjusted my view of myself and my view of humanity as a whole.
I believe that fiction uses "lies" (or to put it gentler, fictional characters and situations) to tell us something about the human condition. Each story raises both moral and ethical questions that are sometimes hard to answer, but important to ponder. For example if I read a science fiction story about an alien race invading Earth and all of humanity uniting together to fight it, I would ask, "Is an intergalactic threat the only way humanity would unite together? How would I contribute to this event? What kind of person am I?"
Also, beyond using fiction for examining ourselves and others, science fiction and fantasy greatly influence innovation. Most of our technology that we use today, if not all, was at one point a piece of a science fiction story. After all, everything is conceptual before it is physically created, right? This is just another reason I believe fiction is so important. Where would we be without authors like Jules Verne (first envisioned the submarine), HG Wells (first man to describe what we know today as the Internet in his novel "The Invisible Man"), or the perhaps lesser known Neal Stephenson (had the idea for a virtual reality in his novel "Metaverse").
In short, I believe in the importance of reading fiction. I believe exposure to far-fetched ideas in both children and adults can greatly effect their view of themselves, their view of humanity as a whole, and their imagination and ability to innovate.