Is Fiction a Waste of Time?

Shouldn't We be Studying Instead? 

What's the point of fiction anyway? Isn't it a waste of valuable time that could be spent learning facts or acquiring marketable skills? Or working, or praying?

You've probably heard this argument before. I know I certainly have. 

After all, time is one of the most valuable resources we've been given, and like the servants given talents in the Gospel parable, we will have to answer for how we've used it. So with all the important things that need to be done—school, work, prayer— how can we justify sinking hours into reading about people who never existed doing stuff that never even happened? 

Obviously, as an avid reader of fiction as well as a writer of it, I definitely think fiction is worth spending time on. So here are three reasons why I think kids (and adults!) should read fiction.

1. Recreation is Not a Waste of Time

Just as the body needs sleep in order to function well, our minds need rest and relaxation too. We can't work, work, work all day long, go straight to bed, sleep, and repeat endlessly. We'll burn out. 

So reading a fun story now and then is a good idea just as a break from other activities. 

Of course, this doesn't give a good explanation of why we should read fiction instead of watching movies, chatting with friends, playing video games, painting watercolors, or scrolling social media, if that's how you want to wind down. 

2. Reading Fiction Does Teach Skills

So why reading? You might as well do some other literature activity during your leisure time, right? And why should literature be a class in school? 

Well, I've got a lot of answers to that. 

First of all, reading fiction improves a lot of very useful skills: spelling, vocabulary, reading fluency, reading comprehension, critical thinking, theory of mind, etc. 

Following a character and a story not only gives readers practice remembering important details and predicting solutions to problems, it also helps them understand what it might be like to be another person, to see things from another point of view. Many novels give readers the chance to literally see both sides of the story, something that is hard to do in real life, but which is an incredibly valuable skill in any relationship. 

Besides those universal skills that any genre of high-quality fiction will teach, certain genres are also a great way to learn about the world. Historical fiction, for instance, makes history come alive and gives its readers a much deeper understanding of the past. 

3. The Real Reason to Read Fiction

So fiction is fun, and fun is important. Reading fiction also teaches all kinds of facts and skills, which is great. 

But it's not just about gaining skills, or just about fun. 

Aristotle said that the reason for watching tragedies was to educate the emotions. Sophocles’s plays show characters and events in such a way that the viewer feels certain emotions in response to certain events. Fear and sadness are the appropriate emotions to feel in response to sorrowful, fearful things, and it is good to practice those emotions in context. This is what he meant by catharsis. Not simply releasing those emotions, but using them appropriately, training them. 

It's not just about catharsis and fear and sadness, of course. Reading Jane Austen trains your feelings and thoughts to value mutual respect in marriage, to laugh at silly affectations, and to be satisfied about seeing the right man and the right woman join forces. 

Your emotional responses are trained by the stories you encounter. If you grow up reading adventure stories about noble young people who risk their lives for their convictions and who will not tell a lie even when it would be advantageous, you will feel in your bones that that is right. You will want to be like them. 

If you read the classics, you will have a sense of the continuity of culture and will know what it means to be formed by Greece and Rome and Christendom. We have a chance to join the conversation that's been going on for over two thousand years, to get the inside jokes of Western culture.

But it's also important to read—and write—contemporary Catholic fiction. If the classics ground us in traditions of the past and the catechism teaches our intellects about the eternal truths of the faith, Catholic fiction is what makes you feel bound to the Church here and now.

Whatever the genre, historical, contemporary, or futuristic, reading books by living authors around the world reminds us that we are not alone. Others are thinking and living and breathing the same faith. And their modern voices remind us that living the faith is not a thing of the past—but just as alive and true and vibrant today as it ever was.