Does Anyone Really Want to Learn?

Think Tank #78

Why do people read fiction?

Or nonfiction? Why do people read anything? Or write anything? Why do people think about anything?

Turns out this rabbit hole can be followed very far, so let’s dial it back a little bit. Why do people read?

There could be a few reasons. To learn something would be the most straightforward answer, particularly in the case of nonfiction. People read a book in order to gain information on a topic which they’d like to know more about.

This is the same for fiction, too. Stories (ones that are any good, anyway) teach us something about ourselves. The stories which move us the most are the ones that strike us as real (thematically, that is—this can be true of a gritty family drama or a high fantasy epic).

The result is generally unplanned, on the author’s part. Their job is to write the story. They can have some type of theme in mind, but for the most part, it’s not up to them what people get out of their work.

Stories come from lived experience. They communicate what the author has experienced, what lessons she has learned. Fiction shows readers how the world looks from someone else’s eyes.

We crave this kind of thing, which brings us to an interesting contradiction. We want to see how other people view the world, but we’re lazy—we gravitate towards people whose outlooks are similar to ours.

It’s affirming to read a story that tells you exactly what you want to hear. They hit that ‘sweet spot’ where they contain just enough new information that their doesn’t feel like it’s a waste of their time, but also doesn’t overwhelm them with too outrageous an outlook, either. We want to feel smart while reading, not dumb. A worldview that is completely alien intimidates us.

I think this is why fiction that is ‘ahead of its time’ is often ignored or even hated when it comes out. The author sees her point clearly, but her readers don’t see it that way. The author is calling her readers out—and the readers, lacking the author’s insight, don’t want to listen.

Of course, the stories that stick with us the most are the ones which challenge us in this exact way. Great fiction often makes us uncomfortable. However, these stories also need to contain just enough familiarity to keep the reader from feeling threatened.

We like what we know. Our fragile little egos can’t handle a full ‘paradigm shift.’

Of course, change is also inevitable. Believe it or not, people like to think. If we read (or watch, or discuss) things which don’t challenge us at all, we lose interest.

This constant craving for ‘different-but-not-too-different’ means that change moves slowly but consistently. Never stopping, rarely speeding up.