I’ve recently become jaded on the use of fiction due to a nearly opposite line of thought: Fiction is really not important.
There are plenty of real problems and real drama.
Eliezer was not able to write about the experience of being a rationalist merely because he read about the experience of being a rationalist in some other work of fiction. Narrative might be required to convey experience, fiction is not.
It is the truths you are trying to convey, that is what matters. But to this we add invented societies, speculation about future technologies, or future technologies that we know can’t exist. These may as well be wizards and sorcery, which is another fine genre for burying important lessons.
The complex and detailed universes inevitably lead to utterly pointless arguments.
Plus, the author will be drawn towards classic myth-forms to make the story better. (And the stories will rise and fall based on their appeal as stories, not the validity or true importance of their lessons.)
I recently watched all of the Star Wars movies with someone who had never seen them. She took Palpatine’s description of the Jedi as actually power-seeking to be universe-accurate exposition. How many falsehoods will fiction bury the truth under?
I’ve recently become jaded on the use of fiction due to a nearly opposite line of thought: Fiction is really not important.
There are plenty of real problems and real drama.
Eliezer was not able to write about the experience of being a rationalist merely because he read about the experience of being a rationalist in some other work of fiction. Narrative might be required to convey experience, fiction is not.
It is the truths you are trying to convey, that is what matters. But to this we add invented societies, speculation about future technologies, or future technologies that we know can’t exist. These may as well be wizards and sorcery, which is another fine genre for burying important lessons.
The complex and detailed universes inevitably lead to utterly pointless arguments.
Plus, the author will be drawn towards classic myth-forms to make the story better. (And the stories will rise and fall based on their appeal as stories, not the validity or true importance of their lessons.)
I recently watched all of the Star Wars movies with someone who had never seen them. She took Palpatine’s description of the Jedi as actually power-seeking to be universe-accurate exposition. How many falsehoods will fiction bury the truth under?