Fiction Is it Truly Pointless?

Our Society, in general, encourages reading. The education

system has fully embraced textbooks and libraries, reading
Newspapers is considered intellectual and theres always a
bookstore just around the corner. However, there is a
certain bias against certain types of literature. Im referring
to, of course, fiction. Biographies are considered superior
to Fantasies and Encyclopedias are supposedly more
productive than Story-Books.
This is simply not true.
To begin with, fiction is old. Stories have been passed down
from generation to generation since the origin of language.
The stories served a purpose. They were used to convey a
message. This message was more times than not an
opinion.
Fiction today is not much different.
Though there are new incentives like personal gain added
to the equation, in the end those factors apply to non-
fiction as well. Take for example, the universally acclaimed,
1984 by George Orwell, used to illustrate a dystopian
future where there is no real privacy or freedom of speech,
among other themes and how to prevent it, or the classic
adventure novel Watership Down by Richard Adams, an
allegory for several themes including choosing freedom
over safety or thinking rationally instead of emotionally.
This is not just limited to books, on the big screen, we have
Avatar; a very direct movie about environmentalism and
exploitation of resources, referring to themes like
xenophobia and urbanization, then theres the highly
praised video game Fallout, which showcases the bleak,
depressing reality of nuclear war and the repulsive heights
people will go to in order to achieve their own personal
goals.
Fiction is not pointless.
It can make you think of the world in ways you never
thought of. It can determine your moral compass. It can
even get you excited for things you found droll and boring.
It can be one of the most rewarding experiences anyone
can have.
But youll never know until you try it.
-Shaurya Chandravanshi 10B1