Between Fictiō and Reality.
Fiction, in its original language, stands alone as the densest form of literature.
Fiction versus non-fiction. It seems like a simple definition, yet it is not. Fiction writing is any narrative that stems from the author’s imagination rather than from documented fact or reality. While fiction may reflect universal truths or realistic details, its distinguishing feature is that it isn’t bound by factual accuracy. And yet, take autobiography. Like William Zinsser ironically noted, “memoir is the art of inventing the truth.”
The modern era brought a new challenge in defining what is fiction and what is not, because we have a new category of books that sound like real ones—non-fiction—yet in reality represent the true meaning of the Latin noun fictiō—that is, “made up.” On the contrary, good classical literature may teach you practical things more effectively than dedicated how-to editions. So, in that sense, they swapped places—a paradox of our epoch.
I’m not a huge fan of Taleb, but it is a good passage where the meaning of decent literature is nicely grasped.
To reveal the true nature through this camouflage, let’s consider some examples.
Seriously, the best book on “Philosophy for Business Leaders” is The Castle by Kafka, followed (probably) by The Way of the Samurai / Hagakure because of the level of absurdity, cruelty, and desperation (sorry to state the obvious).
The best books on business are in the fiction realm.
But not every popular fiction is worth the pursuit. I love parallels with true historical roots and myths, but I never understood the value of parallels drawn from dubious fiction. In this case, those parallels are dubious too, in my opinion.
There are proper, solid books and hot-air books.
Quality fiction, technical manuals, science works, serious philosophy—they’re almost impossible to condense.
Books about everything, self-improvement guides, business anecdotes—they’re easy to condense and replicate.
N. Taleb and J. Peterson—the two giants of modern fiction.
The Book of Revelation is not fiction, and neither is War and Peace. Yet, somehow, Skin in the Game is.
And why would you essentially equate non-fiction with self-help? Maybe because all “airport non-fiction” is essentially self-help. Like Yari proposed, indeed, burn them all.
When theology is learned through science fiction, the Trinity may possess character duality—why not?
Do not learn about the Trinity through science fiction or through modern “everything” books like SITG (“the Trinity business” revelation), or even Tom Holland’s Dominion, which explains how scholars invented the Trinity to fill a narrative gap. Get some serious stuff.