Fiction Versus Facts

Let’s talk about the world of magic, of make-belief, of the abyss beyond the unknown. Let us talk about the universe made of Harry Potter, Noddy, Famous Five, Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, Zombies and Vampires, Eragon and Byomkesh Bakshi, P.S I Love You and Matilda, Twilight Saga and Feluda. The planet where all things are possible. A life where taking the leap of faith is only natural. Let us take a moment to acknowledge the undeniable strength to be found in Rumi’s words, or how Dickens manages to sail home the ship of satire with the cargo of truth each time; of the all encapsulating romance in Shakespeare’s work, in what Kate Moss weaves and how dreary life would be without the wonder and realization they all bring!

India is a strange land where poverty and wealth, aspiration and hopelessness, desire and need stand arm in arm as brothers in war. In India, you are born with two eyes, one to keep on the limitations of life and the other to dream with. It, therefore, is only natural for parents in this amazing land to want to forge a richer future for their children with a greater will than anywhere else. We know our children deserve more. We believe there is a world beyond where dreams do come true. And therefore, we teach our children to dream more vehemently than we ever did. In the process, we end up treading on and crossing the thin line between teaching and forcing. As a child and adolescent psychologist, I have met adults and teens who believe whole-heartedly, that the only way to achieve intelligence is to read non-fiction. “Fiction”, they say, “is a waste of time”, and fantasy is, in their eyes, ” a crime”! “The more you read facts, the better equipped you would be to take on the world head-on, to impress and be more successful”, they say. I once asked a father if he believed that knowledge equals intelligence. Then what happens if I am faced with a novel conundrum? How do I solve a problem that I am not familiar with?

The question is not whether reading non-fiction is a good habit. Of course, it is! The question is whether reading fiction is a “waste of time”.

• • “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking” ― Albert Einstein

Let’s consider why that is true and how the brain works. Imagine the brain as a network of multiple tiny muscles and intelligence as the sum of the strength of all those muscles. The stronger each muscle is, and the more they work in harmony, the stronger you become. Fiction is a way of flexing those muscles, not just your rote memory. Reading a novel consumes attention and requires discipline. Reading is a slower process than watching a video on the same subject. Since reading takes time, it allows the brain to exercise the skills required, such as attention, discipline, comprehension, memory etc. several times, thereby making those “muscles” far stronger than they would be if you jogged them just once. The difference between watching a film and reading is like the difference between working out in the gym once a month and every day of the month, every month. This however is a different topic altogether. Coming back to being a shameless cheerleader of fairy tales and fiction, not only does it boost our imagination and creativity, but it also makes us emotionally more intelligent, and more empathetic. Fiction massages our sensory cortex, increases white matter, and improves our communication skills. It is the way to  journey through and experience the lives of characters in the stories, and gain knowledge of lands unvisited and cultures foreign to us. Literature on the philosophy of selfishness, or a documentary on why some people turn out to be bullies might expose us to such follies as concepts, but Harry Potter makes our brain enact and relive Draco Malfoy’s actions at a neurological level thereby enhancing our associative learning skills. Therefore, I think it is safe to say, fiction makes us more human, a much needed attribute in today’s society!

On the same note as “Being Human”, research is being conducted at Stanford University to understand the difference between reading for pleasure, and goal-oriented, focused reading/studying. It is proven that blood flows to different neural areas depending on how one reads. Research continues to unveil new ways of cognitive training based on this information. Let us therefore not teach our children to shy away from imagination. Let us embrace the wonderful world of unknown that has the capacity to train us in a multitude of skills such as problem-solving, language, culture, resilience and more!

References:

1. 1. Nell, V. (1988). The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure: Needs and Gratifications. Journal of Reading, 31(8), 642-647

1. 1. Barrios, S. (2008). The effect of the reader’s background knowledge on comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(2), 246-263.

1. 1. Oatley, K. (2016). Fiction: Simulation of social worlds. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(8), 618-628.

1. 1. Hsu, C. T., Jacobs, A. M., & Conrad, M. (2015). Can Harry Potter still put a spell on us in a second language? An fMRI study on reading emotion-laden literature in late bilinguals. Cortex, 63, 282-29