"Cultivation Theory", AKA: Does fiction matter?
1/3: A very brief examination on textual works of fiction.
"Does Fiction Matter?
Simple question, right? Does fiction matter?
As a novelist, I'm supposed to say yes. I have to say yes. But. I hate when
someone says I have to do something.
So fiction doesn't matter. It doesn't. It shouldn't.
It's not real. It's all made up. It's just the imagined, make-believe
ramblings of people whose only real qualification is access to a pencil.
Indeed, by definition, fictional stories are, in the words of my sister, "total
BS." They never really happened – and therefore should have no impact
on our everyday existence.
But then I keep thinking: Why do we ban books?
Fiction's just nonsense, right? It's inconsequential. Just made up.
So. Why do we ban books?
Let me tell you why.
Because books are powerful. Stories are powerful. They're recipes made
of hopes and dreams and fears. Stories transport us to new places, and
show us things we could never see, and reveal the darkest parts of our
souls.
Stories educate us, terrify us, and even protect us.
Jay Gatsby was the one who warned us of the dangers of our own excesses
during the 1920s. Superman swooped to the rescue and gave America
hope during the terrifying early days of World War II. Scout and Atticus
showed us our racism, but also showed us the people who we aspire to be
– who we want to be – and who we can be...
And that's why books get banned. That's why they ban Maya Angelou and
Judy Blume and Mark Twain. Because stories change us.
In Huckleberry Finn, people thought they were getting the story about a
boy. Instead, Mark Twain gave them a manifesto. A challenge. An
uncompromising fistfight about injustice and slavery. People thought they
were getting a book. But Mark Twain knew that if you really want to teach
people something, you need to tell them a story.
The best part is, it's nothing new. Fables have taught morality since the
very story was told by the very first storyteller.
Fiction is how we share – and not just how we share our dreams – it's
how we share ourselves. And perhaps more important, how we connect.
When Alexander McCall Smith, a fiction writer, was faced with vocal
readers who disagreed with what he'd done to the imaginary characters in
his book, he became all too aware that "the world of fiction and the world
of real flesh-and-blood people are not quite as separate as one might
imagine. Writing is a moral act: What you write has a real effect on
others, often to a rather surprising extent."
... My fellow mystery writer P.D. James points out, something as simple
as the good guy catching the bad guy at the end of the story is exactly why
the traditional detective story "confirms our belief, despite some evidence
to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral
universe."
I know, I know – that sounds overblown. Too philosophical.
So let's just cut to the facts: According to the Library of Congress, after
the Bible, y'know what's cited as the number one book that's made a
difference in people's lives? To Kill A Mockingbird.
Read that again. Number 1: the Bible. Number 2: To Kill A Mockingbird.
This is where Atticus says, "I rest my case." But for the stubborn few who
still think fiction doesn't matter, I want you to imagine a world without it.
A world without Romeo and Juliet, Don Quioxte, or Ebenezar
Scrooge…Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, or Dr. Frankenstein…" - Brad
Meltzer, Author [1]
The precise ordering and theme of the fiction that influences our lives shifts around, but the fact that it does remains unchanged.
In 1991, the Library of Congress polled Americans asking them to name their first choice of "a book that had made a difference in their lives". The results?
Again fiction came in second only to scripture. A smattering of more fiction jostled with self-help books to fill the middle of the spectrum, along with one more religious work. Literature on political and social-activism came in tied for last place. [2]
That's right. According to the public, fiction 'changes our lives' more than real-life literature on the struggle for gender equality (The Feminine Mystique), or the struggle of Holocaust survivors for a normal life (Man's Search for Meaning).
"Here is the survey's list of the most influential books:
1. The Bible.
2. "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand.
3. "The Road Less Traveled," by M. Scott Peck.
4. "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee.
5. "The Lord of the Rings," by J. R. R. Tolkien.
6. "Gone With the Wind," by Margaret Mitchell.
7. "How to Win Friends and Influence People," by Dale Carnegie.
8. The Book of Mormon.
9. (tied, in alphabetical order by title) "The Feminine Mystique," by Betty Friedan.
"A Gift From the Sea," by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
"Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl.
"Passages," by Gail Sheehy.
"When Bad Things Happen to Good People," by Harold S. Kushner" "
- Source: [2]
The ongoing digital exhibit of "Books that Shaped America", drawn in large part from user submitted data has 48 works of fiction, 13 works on civil rights/social justice/etc, 10 on history, 6 of poetry, 5 popular/science/educational, 5 self-help, 4 religious, 4 domestic advice, and 7 misc. [3]
In other words, just off the numbers, has twelve times the influence on us that religion (the thing that's supposed to teach us morality) does, almost five times the influence that history (something that should teach us facts) does, almost ten times the influence that popular science (more facts) does, and almost four times the influence that works on social justice/inequality/etc (the works that raise awareness and develop our humanity) have on us. [3]
So yes, fiction does matter. By sheer virtue of numbers, if this were an election, fiction would govern. As the genre of other people's words and thoughts that numerically outweighs any other literary influence on us, by a factor of several, it may well govern some portion of our mental worldview, and numbers are not the only thing that fiction has to its advantage:
"Research in psychology and broad-based literary analysis ... consistently
shows that fiction does mold us. The more deeply we are cast under a
story's spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction seems to be
more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to
persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read
nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But
when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are
moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.
...it's clear that these stories really can change our views. As the
psychologist Raymond Mar writes, "Researchers have repeatedly found
that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas
expressed in a [fictional] narrative."...
History, too, reveals fiction's ability to change our values at the societal
level, for better and worse. For example, Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" helped bring about the Civil War by convincing huge
numbers of Americans that blacks are people, and that enslaving them is a
mortal sin. On the other hand, the 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation"
inflamed racist sentiments and helped resurrect an all but defunct KKK. "
- Dr. Jonathan Gottschall, author of "The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human." [4]
The precise extent of this influence is beyond the scope of this essay, and beyond any easy cut-and-dry answers, as is the question of whether or not this is a 'good thing'.
In any case, the questions we ask ourselves may well be more valuable than answers that someone else provides us. I have an opinion that is as perpetually informed as I can make it and will state it as such, but I'm not here to preach. I hope to encourage people to think for themselves, challenge for themselves the preconceptions that are too-often swallowed whole, and go make their own informed opinions.
The present Library of Congress listing is not sorted by popularity, but the 1991 survey was. When Americans, as a population, place "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand (who held that the greatest virtue is selfishness) two popularity places above Harper Lee's anti-racist "To Kill a Mockingbird", what does it mean for us?
For those not familiar with Ayn Rand as philosopher, her ideas center
around the pursuit of money and monetary power for the self and one's own
(as a benefit to self) defined as moral necessity. Charity to those who do
not fall into this category is not only stupid, in her mind, it is a betrayal
of self and thus society. Though subtle, this current is threaded through her
fiction, which may well be a better delivery mechanism for her ideas then her
political/philosophical treatises, not only based on research on the matter
(eg ref. #4), but also the simple fact that it is mostly her novels that are
distributed freely and massively to classrooms in the US by the Ayn Rand
Institute, which is dedicated to promoting her philosophy.
While racism and bigotry is on the upswing in America (and not only), most who rail against providing medical care to the disabled/seniors/refugees rarely justify it by claiming that these 'others' suffer from 'racial/genetic inferiority'. Instead they talk about these 'others' as a financial burden on us, our future, and 'our own', tacitly encouraging selfishness over humanity and empathy.
Is there some connection then, one might ask, between the fiction we consume and the currents of selfishness and racism growing in our societies?
In the next chapter: "Cultivation Theory", AKA: Does fiction matter?:
2/3: A more proper examination of fiction in/on audiovisual media, and its effects.
.
Notes:
References for Ch. 2:
1: www dot nytimes dot com slash 1991 slash 11 slash 20 slash books slash book-notes-059091 dot html
2: bradmeltzer dot com slash TV-Kids-and-More slash 913 slash does-fiction-matter
3: read dot gov slash btsa dot html
4: www dot bostonglobe dot com slash ideas slash 2012 slash 04 slash 28 slash why-fiction-good-for-you-how-fiction-changes-your-world slash nubDy1P3viDj2PuwGwb3KO slash story dot html
