3 ms·

I don’t understand why this myth persists? Why do so many people view reading fiction as an unworthy waste of time?

• Jensson 4y ago
  Fiction isn't a waste of time, but you can't say it is intellectually interesting compared to science. You can read about magical physics in science fiction books or you can read about real physics in science books. The later is much more interesting than the former, there is no comparison. There is a middle ground in PopSci, still not as interesting as real physics but better than science fiction books.
  • Enginerrrd 4y ago
    >Fiction isn't a waste of time, but you can't say it is intellectually interesting compared to science. I am of the camp that real physics is far more interesting than fiction to me personally, and I crack open textbooks far more often than works of fiction. However, I must opine that to say that fiction isn't as intellectually interesting compared to science probably speaks more to your own lack of understanding of the subject of fiction than to fiction itself. Fiction is far from a settled science! There is tremendous room for creativity. Many competing mental models for how to compose a story, character, the prose itself, how literary themes should interact, etc. etc. What makes a best-seller different from a mediocre book? An endless number of things that can be dissected, experimented with and evolved. And that's to say nothing about the concepts that can be toyed with through fiction and stories. Setting up a fictitious universe and exploring the consequences of that setup is not so different from asking the 'what if' questions assuming certain mathematical axioms or different sets of physical laws and symmetries.
• HKH2 4y ago
  Do you view reading the Bible or the Koran as an unworthy waste of time?