Jan Mbali writes:
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My take on the question is that there is much truth in fiction, as it provides a unique kind of freedom to plumb the depths of your memory and the times we live in. Non-fiction, bound by various kinds of conventions, can produce another kind of truth.
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I basically agree with that. It is the reason why most of us don't just stick to non-fiction to find out how a country or people ticks.
I've also heard that Marx quote about Balzac. We should be open-minded about the political spectrum, but also about gender, sexual preference, and so on. Imagine if only gays read novels about homosexuality, or only women read novels by women, or only Blacks novels by Blacks. The world would fragment. And we'd never learn what the other half was doing. If you only read fiction and non-fiction describing people who are like you, or with whom you agree, you will never be challenged by something new and different.
I am a dilettante, but being that teaches you things that you wouldn't learn if you stuck to one sort of book or film. As for being middle-class, yes, I am. What is the difference between being middle-class and being bourgeois? And what is the difference between petit bourgeois and haute bourgeois?