Why We Read Fiction

"Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody’s dazzling language—or at least I hope that’s not our reason. I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not “true” because we’re hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourself." - Orson Scott Card, Introduction to the Ender's Game

Reading fiction and viewing art in general is an act of self-creation, or better, self-realization. I have been tempted at times to think that reading fiction is a waste of time. But in so thinking I am potentially impoverishing culture. The question remains, though: How does a particular work of art re-create us? How does it form us? To imbibe in art without reflecting on these questions is allow ourselves to be constantly redefined, or worse, redefined in the way that our modern consumeristic culture demands. I haven't read Ender's Game yet, but I'm looking forward to it.