When we go to a football game and a mascot is dancing around cheering for their team, fiction is blaringly present. When we were convincingly told the story of Father Christmas or the frugal tooth-fairy we participated in fiction. Fiction isn’t just in a book, it envelopes our very society. It informs how we see each other and the world we interact with. There are a lot of good fictional works out there that prove this point, below are some I want to journey through and demonstrate that deeply embedded in fiction is truth.

When we enter into the world of George Orwell’s Animal Farm we are introduced to several different animals. Not just any animals, talking and doing animals. The way Orwell writes, makes it seem as if the talking animals are a common everyday occurrence. We then are drawn into a world where animals take over the farm. In this story what we see are animals who can’t seem to deny their ‘humanity’ but we can see that the humans, like Farmer Jones denying not only his humanity, but also his animality. Humans are part of the animal kingdom, we are classified as mammals. In the first few chapters, we see the animals acting more ‘civilized’ than the humans. Insinuating that humans are not inherently civilized beings, that we are savages. What’s even more offensive is that its true. By defining who is in and who is out we align ourselves with the need to be power brokers.

People who abuse power to their own end.

At one point in the story, Napolean (a pig) the ‘President’ of Animal Farm chases off Snowball (a pig), they initially shared power and over time Snowball became Napolean’s reason for anything bad that happened at the farm. If their mill was destroyed because of strong winds, it wasn’t the wind that was at fault, but poor Snowball. In this instance, we begin to see something about the politics of then and now begin to come together. Orwell composed this novel on the heels of World War II and was speaking directly about the dangers of Stalinism and totalitarian governments. If we look at the story panoramically, we also see that even in politics today there are the fabled unknowns that seem to be at fault for things such as high taxes and poor service , or, the mysterious ‘ them’ and ‘us.’ It seems Animal Farm wasn’t simply speaking into the time it was written but even now. Stories do that.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a narrative that speaks into the very fabric of what could happen when greed and technology collide. It tells of the heart of darkness that Conrad wrote about in the Congo. It demonstrates what happens when we as people attempt to pervert the natural order. Some of what we see today that easily emulates the possibilities of greed advancing technological progress to the point where we become the very monster we create.

Maybe even worse, the monsters we create become more civilized than us.

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells is a narrative, along the same lines, that cautions us to what happens when we attempt to pervert our creativity and use it to justify captivity. In that moment, the point of the story becomes about our captivity to creativity which could then lead to deformed outcomes. If you look into the gruesome mistakes of Botox, this is one science experiment that doesn’t always work out.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World eerily speaks into our generation of tecnho-gadget addicts. The premise of the synopsis hides itself in satirical overkill. It was originally written in response to Well’s novel Men Like Gods that ends hopeful, a utopian response to what could happen. Huxley wasn’t as hopeful and wrote Brave New World as his dystopian response. The story itself follows technology, future and the dangers of losing ourselves as individuals. Today, social networking websites are hugely prolific – an answer to the charge many level at Huxley that he was paranoid. Now, people prefer to lose themselves in community and ‘anonymity’  rather than authentic individuality. Postmodern and post-postmodern researchers, state that now more than ever, due to the exilic nature of having no absolutes, people replace their absolutes with relationships.

Social networking is the new absolute.

Fiction when seen as a prophet speaks loudly into our culture. I think there is an intrinsic dance that is happening when a work of fiction is being created. Fiction as an art is reflexive in nature, not only does it affect our society but society affects it too. Fiction in general, tends to get a bad rap. When most hear the word fiction words like ‘lie’, ‘not true’, ‘made up’ or ‘fabrication’ tend to arise somewhere in the attic of their cerebral cortexes. Maybe we can borrow the words of mythologist Joseph Campbell to help give us a cleared definition of what we might mean when we use the word  the formative influence behind Star Wars, defines myth as “…a directing of the mind and heart, by means of profoundly informed figurations, to that ultimate mystery which fills and surrounds all existences (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

Maybe myth might be a better word here.

Myth as a narrative that is inhabited with deeper truths about the human experience and condition. Its a mirror into who we are, where we were and how we could be. Rather than easily dismissing fiction as false, maybe the next time we crack open a book we can begin asking "What is this saying about me?" or "What is this saying about society?" The danger would be to think that these books were solely written for our entertainment, that they are meant to be eye-candy to our friends and families and make us look studious.

Maybe they were written also to teach us, to change us and challenge us. Author and blogger Ligia Luckhurst explains it this way: "Whether it emerges as visual and spatial imagery or as a story in whatever form, a myth is always a narrative whose purpose is not to entertain but to energise the quotidian through enactment (not re-enactment!) of the eternal creative now." 

We need to allow the myths, these stories embedded with deeper truths transform the way we see each other and the world around us, when we do this we not only embrace fiction as a good story but we begin to see that fiction is what it within us.

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George Elerick

1 Comment for The Truth About Fiction

Carly

This is so true, society has to acknowledge this and not to dissect existing mythology as it allows the opportunity of thought. As in George Orwell’s 1984 as well, it is evident how society is ruled by higher powers that evidently leads to people only living in the enforced perception. Fortunately due to free thought and expression, these humane injustices have been avoided only in some instances. Although it is sad that in some instances the world of fiction meets that of the beast.

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