1 post tagged “themes”

For a long time I've thought that the only voices you can learn from are those of non-fiction. Newspapers, documentaries, history books, essays, textbooks...

And I've wondered why we read stories.  Is it just one of the many ways we escape reality for a while, like an alcohol addiction, just less destructive?  Is there anything constructive in reading stories?  Developing our imaginations?  Becoming more literate?  Is that all?  If that's everything, then are these sufficient enough reasons to spend time there?

I used to think that's all there was to stories.  And then I watched Atonement.  Watching it was like putting my soul in a blender.  It challenged me.  And it made me start to think why I love fiction...

The thing I like about stories is that they are not a bunch of facts that can be challenged, although you can challenge the logic.  They set their own facts so you concern yourself more with the ideas, the themes... you find new definitions for words like love and sacrifice, you wonder what these themes mean in reality, in this world's set of facts.

And I've also realized that good stories aren't just about taking you on a ride, about giving you that escape.  Most romantic comedies, most little girls playing barbies (or to be current... bratz dolls?), most romance novels seem like emotional pornography... a cheap taste of the real thing. 

I'm still trying to sort this out (so i'm sorry my thoughts aren't well-organized here), but the main thing I've learned is that good stories challenge you to think differently about universal themes and ideas.  And whether the story is fiction or not, it's more alive than a definition.

The dictionary defines "humble" as "not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive", but a story defines "humble" as "[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" 

which one has more to say about humility?