>>24383457
>What are your thoughts on using fiction to understand human behavior?
I think fiction is one potential tool to be used to better understand human behavior. however, it would be a misstep to think that's all fiction is.
>What is the purpose of literary fiction more generally?
"literary fiction" is a marketing word. but the idea that there is one catch-all purpose that could be applied to all of fiction is also kinda reductive. the purpose of cars is to transport things. the purpose of forks is to help us eat food. i think that fiction is more of a human behavior rather than a human invention. more of an outgrowth of language and a social tool. sorta like asking what is the purpose of language? there are many potential "purposes" of fiction, but communicating ideas and transmitting information would be some of them. transmitting knowledge. entertainment. staving off boredom. recording events and social attitudes. espousing the values of a society. i think your question is reductive though. there are ways to look at the world besides "what is the purpose of this thing?"
>I am anti-fiction as a method of understanding human behavior. Look to how people actually behave, not how one writer thinks they behave.
this is a weird maxim. why would a writer not be able to record how people actually behave? the claim seems to be that you need to physically observe people with your own senses to understand their behavior, and that any other method for attempting to understand human behavior would be less accurate or valid. if that's the only valid way to understand human behavior, wouldn't you only be able to understand people in your limited social circle and direct experience? what about the way people hide things from you and each other and don't tell the truth, etc.? Additionally, if you wrote down your experience of what you observed and changed their names to protect your identity, would writing it down somehow negate what you saw? that doesn't make any sense to me. furthermore, human behavior is complex and multilayered. so it would seem that one person's interpretation or observation of human behavior would be limited. and by reading multiple perspectives about it you would gain a better understanding, just as a rule of having more information and sources. moreover the human imagination just isn't that powerful. i think there is something that happens in storytelling where it's always a reflection of reality, and if it doesn't feel real enough it just doesn't entertain or scratch the "story" itch in our brain. idk man this tweet is so stupid it's hard to dig up all of the hidden mistakes in it.

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What are your thoughts on using fiction to understand human behavior?What is the purpose of literary fiction more generally?

What are your thoughts on using fiction to understand human behavior?
What is the purpose of literary fiction more generally?