Fiction

[Anonymous No.15088637]

Is there a point to reading and writing fiction? What's your opinion /lit/? Is fiction good for exploring certain concepts like internal growth?

[Anonymous No.15088659]

i read fiction when i'm feeling overwhelmed by non fiction(politics,philosophy,historiography).

i write fiction when i have ideas that i can't put anywhere elese.

i don't see the harm in it, it's not like you will only read fiction your entire life or that you'll become some sort of dreamer or lose grasp on reality.

[Anonymous No.15088742]

Fiction is beautiful in a way nonfiction rarely is. I'm not just talking about prose. Stories themselves have a beauty to them due to their structure, their order, their ability to knit things neatly up in the conclusion at the end. Real life is messy, but fiction is not, and in that regard it is satisfying.

[Anonymous No.15088801]

>>15088742
Agreed. Still aside from that do you think there are other benefits from fiction? Like the ability to explore things

[Anonymous No.15088843]

>>15088637
Is there a point to watching anime?

[Anonymous No.15088920]

>>15088843
Depends on the story and themes I guess

[Anonymous No.15088937]

Human understand the universe around them through narrative, that is how our brains process and retain information. Fiction is the process of packaging ideas into the (theoretically) most accessible and best-communicated form of information.
But unfortunately there's low quality control on fiction which has caused fiction's reputation to become quite unimpressive, causing less potentially-skilled writers to engage in the field.

[Anonymous No.15088984]

>>15088937
Interesting. Do you have some examples of what you count as shitty fiction? What makes it shitty?

[Anonymous No.15088999]

>>15088984
>shitty fiction
Everything a woman reads
>why is shitty
Because of women

[Anonymous No.15089002]

>>15088637
i dont care. i want to read fiction.

[Anonymous No.15089010]

>>15088999
Based

[Anonymous No.15089038]

>>15088999
Keked and checked

[Anonymous No.15089054]

>>15088843
theres a point to watching good anime. unfortunately thats like .00001% of the genre

[Anonymous No.15089092]

>>15088637
There are truths that cannot be expressed in language or comprehend by your monkey brain. Good literature hints at such truths and can only be absorbed intuitively.

[Anonymous No.15089137]

>>15089054
I unironically feel like there's more legitimately /lit/ anime in the world than Western tv shows, although I'm probably just not being exposed to the right stuff.

[Anonymous No.15089250]

>>15088984
A lot of fiction lacks the purpose and thought behind it required to truly end up saying anything of value. Asking for an example is tough because the examples are so numerous, but because of their quality, are as a result not commonly read. The ones that have achieved genuine long-lasting popularity, such as Harry Potter, do have genuinely good things going on inside them despite the many failings (in its case, the series taps into and execute many archetypes of the heroes journey very well, packaged in a successfully appealing way to young readers). But I'll try, even though I doubt you'll have heard of my bad example.
Lord of the Rings: Epic story based out of an excellently crafted world steeped in influences from real-world mythos, written by a guy who actually understands why these myths actually appeal to humans. Tells the story of evil corrupts and entices, but how, ultimately, good men will overcome evil against all odds.
The Red Queen: Set in an ill-defined dystopian setting where people have magical powers as a vehicle to set up class struggles, as the author's self-insert discovers she has magic as well and is uplifted from the slums to become royalty, and becomes embroiled in a love triangle amidst small-scale political backstabbing with no large-scale implications.
Good fiction constructs its story to say something about the human condition, or the metaphysical ideas which we have grappled with since achieving sapience. Bad fiction poorly wrestles with issues far beyond the scope of the author's understanding and intelligence, on top of pushing said issues to the side in favour of mundane bullshit that can only be cared about if you're self-inserting into the character(s). In other words, using the story as merely a vehicle for escapism.
Imagine if the "love triangle" between Aragorn and Arwen/Eowyn was a dedicated point of focus amidst the second and third books, and instead of finding the hobbits of rallying the Rohirrim to aid Gondor, he just moped around as Legolas and Gimli handled that, instead agonizing over these two girls. There's bigger shit to worry about, both in-universe and in the real world. When the fiction cares about and is properly handling real world issues (or analogues), then I care about the fiction.

[Anonymous No.15089264]

>>15089137
No, I would concur. I used to fucking despise the genre and nips, but on lieu I decided to watched one and found it more palatable than most western shit. The problem is that the target audiences of the mediums are basically the same except the nips don't really market heavily towards women (relatively) and certainly not to minorities. As a result, the medium in general is more conducive to story telling, but it appears plagued by a number of things. At this specific moment in time, I consider it objectively more palatable than hollywood in scope and depth

[Anonymous No.15089270]

>>15089137
Western tv shows are pretty barren for quality, really only a couple have accidentally managed to stand out.
Anime is much more steeped in a culture on the fringes of society, and from the 80's/90's has had quite the arthouse undercurrent. Although the majority is absolutely still shit, it's no surprise to me that it manages to pump out actual works of quality every once in a while. An industry run by and staffed by autists will inevitably put out something interesting despite their corporate overlords. But the crews creating western tv are almost all normalfags.

[Anonymous No.15089382]

>>15089270
Hilarious to read people mood affiliate their short comings w/successful groups. "Anime IS BETTER than that normal thing! ANd I just happen to be an exceptional autist"

Kys

[Anonymous No.15089391]

>open lit
>start browsing
>it's another "what's purpose of fiction lel xd" thread
mfw

[Anonymous No.15089399]

>>15089264
I think as this anon here says, >>15089270, anime managed to garner something of an arthouse scene and appeals to fringes, which facilitated its ability to produce something with actual artistic ambition. I imagine a comparable hypothetical scenario would be if Japan was allowed to keep all of its great film directors but in the West we were stuck with Spielbergs and Lucases running the entire show.

[Anonymous No.15089427]

>>15089391
Yeah, why do people do this? I don't go to /sci/ and ask what the purpose of physics is. Why do we get all these idiots asking us about what we do?

[Anonymous No.15089461]

>>15089382
Hilarious misreading, keep it up anon.

[Anonymous No.15089564]

>>15089427
i don't know why they do it but i am sick of it, i might spam the board with fiction threads

[Anonymous No.15089838]

The ideal work is similar to Tolstoys, mixed with that of Greek tragedy and Wagner. In other words, you should combine elements of non-fiction, fiction, drama and music (and visual arts if not supplied by drama) to create a unity between the elements. I believe Wagner coined this concept Gesamtkunstwerk, where we need to seek the unity of aesthetics once again. I believe A Streetcar Named Desire also does a respectable job of doing this too, if you want an example.

[Anonymous No.15089864]

>>15088637
>is there a point a to imagination and hypothetical abstraction
yes.
it allows us to explore potential scenarios of existence through simulation

[Anonymous No.15090254]

>>15089391
>>15089427
OP here, I was curious about /lit/s opinions since I've been here and seen some anons talk down fiction. Chill the fuck out this isnt your super special secret club fagots.