Fiction Versus Non- fiction

Few weeks back I attended a  poetry reading session hosted by my publisher in one of Bangalore’s trendiest book shops. For a change I reached early, and it was sheer pleasure to browse through the vast collection of books  on the  shelves. A mother daughter duo were engrossed  in the  books on the next shelf. As my interest and theirs coincided : which  was to go through the latest  titles of  children’s fiction books, we stood  besides each other for a long time.

I am not a eavesdropper, nor do I like listening to other people’s conversations, but, unfortunately I heard  every single word of their argument.  The girl was about 11 years or whereabouts and the mother a harassed thirty something. The girl had selected a pile of books ( my heart swelled with pride). I just love to see children buying books (not necessarily mine, but any book) rather than frittering their pocket money on silly things.

My  bubble of happiness was  burst by the mother. “You have chosen all fiction books,” she scowled. The books were  rudely removed from her daughter’s hands and dumped back on the shelf. “I am not wasting money on fiction,” she grumbled. A small pile of non- fiction books that was  guaranteed to put a child to sleep  was dumped into the  girl’s hands. “Fiction does not teach anything,” she said. Her  words shocked me.

Where fiction is concerned, I  confess I do have a vested interest, as I am a fiction  writer. But labelling fiction as something  that just doesn’t teach is completely wrong.  Infact, I  feel  kids are definitely more  likely to learn a lot  from fiction because fiction  teaches, but  in a fun way, unlike non-fiction which is in your face teaching while  fiction is gentler and kind on a child’s mind.  

“All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. Its fiction’s business to ask them,” Richard Hughes. I completely agree with it. Fiction questions like nothing else does, and the questions make one sit  up, take notice and  ponder for a long time. The questions  are asked by characters the children have fallen in love with  and   protagonists they  have befriended. Somewhere along  the reading journey  the questions become the child’s own questions, one he or she  is eager to find the answers to.

Its extremely important that for parents  there has to be a  willingness to accept that everything does not  have to be  fed into a school curriculum or any curriculum for that matter. Stories help  children all over the world  develop in many different  ways  which are often more important than the school syllabus. Fiction helps children explore the amazing possibilities of imagination, the  finer nuances of human emotions, the  sheer joy of words and language,  fiction transports children to countries and worlds they have never been to, acquaints them with creatures they have never seen and many, many other things. And the icing on the cake is  that  it  entertains the child like nothing else does.

What do you all think, was the woman right in nudging, or, rather pushing her daughter towards non- fiction books? Do you feel that fiction just does not teach anything? I would love to get everyone’s  opinion.

     

Fiction’s Ultimate Concern

“ The only requirement for good fiction is that it be interesting,” Henry James said. A fiction writer is free from the shackles that bind the non-fiction writer. For creating a world of make believe a writer of fiction is under no legal obligation to anyone except his muse. As a work of fiction belongs solely to the writer’s imagination, he or she is not bound by any formal rule. This freedom is akin to the wind under the wings. The only limitation comes from the imagination.

For any work of fiction to enter the realm of classic: it has to be good, it has to be interesting and of course relevant to all times; before and after its publishing period.

What separates a good fiction from a great one is not just the literary and technical skills of the writer, but also the universality (the universal questions the book deals with in its own inimitable, unique and interesting way).

Paul Tillich calls it the Ultimate Concern. The contemporary fiction which falls under the best category has the quality of the ultimate concern in abundance. Ultimate Concern is something that we take with unconditional and utmost seriousness in our lives without any reservations. It’s something that we are ready to suffer for, or, even die for. Ultimate concern is something which makes every other concern in that person’s life secondary. The ultimate concern consumes the person. It contains the answer to the question of the meaning of that person’s life.

A person is Grasped by this ultimate concern. Take the example of Harry Potter in the seven books by Rowling. His ultimate concern was to  destroy  Voldemort's Horcruxes and make him susceptible to  death and  also stop him from unleashing his terror on the wizards. Harry was aware that either he would be successful in thwarting Voldemort, or, he would die in the process. The outcome of this ultimate concern was absolutely clear to Harry. But he was grasped by it, caught in the ultimate concern’s death like grip. This thought haunted him day and night, he was a boy possessed with just one mission in life. Stop Voldemort.

I believe that every work of fiction grapples with an ultimate concern which consumes the protagonist like fire. The resolution of this ultimate concern forms the crux of the story. For me the ultimate concern transfers into the conflict in the book. Maybe the conflict in my book may not be universal, maybe this conflict is just crucial for my protagonist: but it becomes his or her ultimate concern, something he or she is dead serious about. Something for which they are willing to stake their lives.

How do you decide the ultimate concern of your protagonists? Are they grasped by it like Harry? Please share. We would love to learn from everyone’s experience.



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