Fiction is EVERYTHING! Why novels are as vital as nonfiction for our culture and growth

Entertaining, life-changing, informative, powerful, and so much more - fiction should be thought of as highly as non-fiction. Here's my pitch!

There’s a rumour going round somewhere that fiction can’t inspire personal growth or cultural insight as much as non-fiction. I hear the echo of it from time to time – someone apologising for their fiction habits or saying they only read non-fiction because their focus is on understanding more about the world – and I never feel like I do enough to jump to fiction’s defence. But as an avid fiction reader – and writer – I desperately want to assure these folks that there’s so much to learn in good fiction for all ages. Off the top of my head: Jung Chang’s Wild Swans was my introduction to the Chinese Cultural Revolution; Robert Swindell’s Brother in the Land conveyed the horrors of nuclear war; Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper made me think about the ethics around organ donation; while

Anita Heiss

’s Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray taught me about Wiradyuri language, culture, displacement and dispossession. Fiction inspires empathy and compassion through its committed exploration of character and social settings, pulling us entirely into lives and experiences that are often far removed from our own. These deep connections can be anything from joyous to terrifying – because great fiction can take us into the darkest corners of our shared humanity, challenging us to look at the most abhorrent acts of our fellow humans and to trace the path into these unbearable places, and the potential ways out.

Narrative forms are continually evolving, and there can be some interesting blurrings between fiction and nonfiction, such as in Anna Funder’s Wifedom, which I wrote about last year. However, in general conversation we still tend to hear nonfiction prioritised as the way in which readers become more informed (and inspired – depending on the topic), whereas fiction is discussed primarily as entertainment. Neither of these definitions are entirely wrong, but they are over-simplified and negate some of the important possibilities that fiction can provide.

I was thinking about all this during the week, when I had the privilege of attending fellow Western Australian author David Whish-Wilson’s book launch for his new novel Cutler. Tim Winton has described it as both a ‘ripping page-turner’ and a book ‘about the shameful secrets just across the horizon - the subsidised rape of our oceans and the enslavement of the mariners who labour in the ravenous maw of industrial fishing.’ Cutler exposes lawlessness of ocean life in places beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (i.e. outside any country’s jurisdiction), where many of the fishing fleet workers are slaves, and each ship’s captain is king of his own floating domain, his level of ruthlessness dictating the lives and deaths of all those who work for him. David is one of those rare writers who can pull you into any topic just through the quality of his writing – because, despite my devotion to the ocean, the exploits of testosterone-loaded fishing fleets are not my usual go-to read, and neither are the stories of boxers in the 1850s, which was the subject of his last brilliant book The Sawdust House. Nevertheless, I will search David’s novels out and I’m always riveted - both by the incredible artistry of his language and the insight and contemplation that David pours into his work.

The benefit to reading widely across genres and being both entertained and informed via fiction has an ongoing effect: I’m far less likely to skim over any newsy articles on the topic of the deep-sea fishing industry because, after reading Cutler, I have a way in. Fiction can therefore encourage and inspire the development of my real-world knowledge. I’ve had the same experience with

Natasha Lester

’s novels, which are often based on the unsung heroines of the Second World War. I know SO much more about the war and these women thanks to Natasha’s own deep and meticulous research. Therefore, although many of the hallmarks of David’s and Natasha’s books mark them out as very different writers - such as the raw masculinity often found in David’s work, and the celebratory feminine and romantic tone of Natasha’s novels - the effect on me is the same: I’m hooked, and I’m learning, learning, learning. And let’s not forget that studies have been done to show that fiction also deepens empathy and encourages understanding and compassion for unknown others, traits that are desperately needed in our increasingly divided and fractious world.

The incredible thing about reading fiction is that despite its potential to enrich and inform our lives, this is all a subplot to its core purpose: which is indeed to entertain. All novelists know that unless we can do a good job of captivating our reader, all our research becomes dry and dictatorial. No one wants a lecture from a novel! For the many writers like me who are drawn to put social issues and commentary into fiction, this is a significant challenge, because we know that the exploration of such topics can never override or outweigh the story itself. And yet we don’t want the elevation of story to completely obscure the important questions, topics and research that underpin our endeavours. Therefore, it can be disheartening when our culture begins to view fiction as less worthy than non-fiction, because if we lose an appreciation for fiction’s many depths, forms and nuances then we do the entire canon a vast disservice. Whether it’s through the intimate, life-affirming connections of relatable characters, or the wider cultural context of a sweeping epic, any fiction that sincerely connects with readers is doing its job perfectly. A shout-out here to the astute social commentary found in most genre fiction (such as crime, sci-fi, fantasy and romance), because these books are most likely to be derided as ‘throwaway’ or ‘airport fodder’, but there’s a bloody good reason they are much loved and extremely commercially successful: readers relate deeply to these stories, and the top writers do an incredible job of connecting with their audience.

It’s my assertion that the best fiction - from ALL genres, commercial and literary - deserves to stand beside the most impactful non-fiction, and not be deemed as any less valuable - and I hope I’ve persuaded a few nonfiction aficionados to give more novels a try! Fiction is a vital component of our culture, and we should ensure we champion it as such - and celebrate authors who want to make an impact and a difference through storytelling. When a frazzled fiction writer is busy wrestling with all the things they want their book to be, they can easily get distracted by noise and begin to doubt how important and complex their job is, thereby undermining themselves and their purpose. So if you’re an established author or just beginning, and if you ever feel like this, then for all our sakes, keep the faith - and keep going.