Fiction Is Not Real

I think that some of the things that we've learned so far this year have been interesting; especially some of Nabokov's ideas. One that stuck out to me is the idea of fiction not being real in the slightest bit. Most, when reading a book, start to imagine that what they are reading is a true story, or that it really happened at some point. That is why people think that non-fiction books are boring; because some people then realize that the world is a boring place sometimes. We don't see knights fighting dragons or people being saved by superheroes or aliens visiting us from other planets. Life is just not that extraordinary. However, we can still enjoy fiction books. We just can't make the mistake of identifying with characters or believing that you're a part of the story.

One thing that I enjoy about what we are reading is that most of these stories have ambiguous endings. Most people hate that because they crave closure and resolution so that they can feel like they're lives are "complete". However, if the story just gives you the ending, then that's that. In other words, there is no freedom of thought when the book is over. You know what happens, and there's nothing else to be had. But, when there is no clear ending, then we can all create our own endings and reasoning for those endings which can lead to a discussion that can be much more interesting than simply knowing exactly what happened to each character. Some people hate this however, because they feel like they went on this journey for nothing when they don't get an ending. (A peak to the mountain). But, these types of books represent the real world in the way that in your life, you may not have a definite ending all the time where you are left wondering if you did something right or not. If someone told you everything, then there would be no point in trying to learn.