The ‘sources’ aren’t even worth a response; the human brain’s ability to attribute feeling or associations to words is an obvious one, which stems back to ancient times in absolute clarity, because - without this emotional reaction - art in any/all forms would be destroyed overnight. The article isn’t “fiction influences reality”, but “fiction influences out emotion” …
It means that reading “Romeo and Juliet” may have me on the verge of tears, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to go out and commit a double-suicide because I read the play … newspapers, documentaries, and letters from loved ones could evoke the same emotions … ban those, too?
The latter is too much for me to dissect right now …
I’ll simply say that fiction can - and should - be totally free and the artist free to explore any theme as they see fit … ‘Lolita’ to ‘The Colour Purple’ to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ all discuss problematic things, some even romanticise them, and yet we don’t ban these books, because they provoke discussion and have literary merit. On the flipside, tawdry ‘Mills and Boons’ novels to hardcore porn DVDs are also allowed, because they entertain and provide a release.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s porn or gorn … for kids or for adults … poetry or fine-art or literary classics … what we read does not impact our actions, insofar as a direct cause and not a correlation. The actual studies on this are vague at best, biased at worst, and debated in most psychology classes … so far people are unanimous: fiction does not impact reality.
A good book -? It can make you think. It can make you reassess your behaviour. It can horrify you. It can arouse you. It can spark a lifetime of research. These are all emotion based … the book has engaged you on a mental level, making you think about your behaviour and personality, and - well - maybe this is what scares you … not ‘copying’ the behaviour …
I have never once - in all my years of studying Literature - served someone I hate the flesh of her children in a stew, or demanded someone serve me a pound of flesh to even a debt, or poisoned a sword in hopes of killing my nephew … I’ve never slept with my sister and then paraded the aborted foetus around on a stick, just like I’ve never stabbed my cousin to death to inherit from him … these are all stories - mostly Shakespeare - from the same two cenuries a long time ago. Still taught in schools. All taught in schools.
If you think someone is going to copy fiction -?
Get them help. They clearly need it.
Not in a derogatory way, but in an actual ‘something deeper is at play here’, because people don’t act out fantasies or fiction because ‘it’s cool’ or ‘it’s hot’ or ‘so-and-so did it’ … people who act out fiction wither wanted to/were going to do it anyway or they were deeply disturbed people with an underlying illness. People do not copy fiction as a rule.
Do you honestly think between cave-paintings on a wall and being able to buy “Hannibal” on DVD, that not one person noticed ‘people are copying from fiction’ and - you know - banned stories and art outright?
What you’re scared of is people thinking for themselves …
Let them think and let us get back to enjoying art.
New hobby idea: using phrases that sound like down-home folksy expressions you learned from your grandma but are actually just nonsense you just made up
- that man really salts my melon!
- you know what they say, it takes a bushel of corn to feed one chicken
- a louse will live on any head it lands on
- don’t put down a salt lick and say you ain’t got cows
- there’s a guy who eats half the berries and says the pie shell’s too big
- like digging a pond and hoping for ducks
This was supposed to be a joke and all but as a southerner, these still make sense.
its weird these don’t mean anything but you can still kind of intuit what they would mean if they were things people actually said.
@lexicalpsychopathy I literally can’t help but picture you saying all of these
That man really salts my melon: Salt is actually frequently added to melons around here, so someone who salted your melon would be doing you a favor, or make something more appealing. Even though the framing presents it as a negative thing, so maybe you’d use it for someone who annoys you by doing you a favor.
It takes a bushel of corn to feed one chicken: Even if something might seem like a small ask, over time it might add up. A single chicken might eat a small amount of corn in a single day, but over time you’ll find you’ve bought lots of corn. Therefore, something that seems miniscule may in fact be a large commitment.
A louse will live on any head in lands on: Everyone can suffer through bad times and ill luck, regardless of their lot in life. (ie, anyone can suffer from depression, even if they haven’t got it “bad enough”)
Don’t put down a salt lick and say you ain’t got cows: There are multiple possible meanings for this. My favorite is don’t take time fixing a problem you don’t even have, ie, if you don’t have cows, you don’t have the problem of your cows needing a salt lick.
There’s a guy who eats half the berries and says the pie shell’s too big: Don’t blame circumstances for a problem of your own creation.
Like digging a pond and hoping for ducks: Don’t just hope something will turn out after one step, actually follow through all of them. Your pond could attract ducks, sure, or you could just go get ducks to live in your pond.
Seriously, every single one of these nonsenses you just made up follow a certain internal logic and make perfect sense.
“Don’t put down a salt lick and say you ain’t got cows” reads more to me as “Don’t take steps to correct an obvious problem and then deny the problem exists out loud.”
I feel like I need to add these to my personal lexicon.
I really, really like Like digging a pond and hoping for ducks.
Making up in-world expressions in Fantasy novels is one of my favourite things, (do they even HAVE ducks?), but doing it the real world is extra fun and I encourage it.
