Honest question: what do people get out of fiction/stories?

Serious question: what do people get out of fiction and stories, whether they be books, movies, shows, games, or whatever? I ask this because I honestly don't know what sort of stories I might enjoy, or if I even enjoy stories at all.

Thinking back, I'm not sure if I have ever sought a story of my own free will. Almost every movie, show, or book that I have seen or read has been something I experienced with family/friends or something that was required for school in some way. Even in games I don't care about story. For example, to this day I have never seen a single cutscene in a Metal Gear Solid title despite having played through the first three games several times each.

For whatever reason, I just can't get into movies, shows, books, or any other story in the way that seemingly everyone else can. I don't really understand what people get out of them that I can't, and I'd like to find out.

Thoughts? Questions?

edited 24th Feb '16 8:36:16 PM by gnomon

Anyone?

Saw this yesterday, but it was still locked back then. This is a tricky question, but for me at least, the answer would be "escapism" more or less. Fiction let's you experience all kinds of things that you can't, shouldn't or don't want to do in real life. It's also great for evoking strong feelings in a "safe" way if that makes sense. (Like saying, being scared by a horror film without actually being in danger in any way.)

Not to mention that it's a cool way to get interesting ideas across that people might not have considered otherwise, which is why I like sci-fi and such, myself.

Good summation. It's a way to immerse yourself in a "reality" that isn't your own, stimulating your imagination and allowing you to live another's life by proxy, and just maybe learning a thing or two about yourself and what makes you tick in the process.

edited 25th Feb '16 9:18:13 AM by Willbyr

Because of empathy, at least for me. I like to get into other people's (characters) shoes and try to experience what they go through. It's why I like sad, depressing, dramatic stories so much. Also, there's the cultural aspect of non-Western stories. For example, the main reason I like Higurashi has nothing to do with horror, but how it immerses me into rural Japanese culture - a culture I'd probably never experience otherwise if it weren't for HNNKN.

I envy people that enjoy fiction, and I really wish I knew why it doesn't seem to interest me. Maybe I don't feel as if I can get emotionally invested in someone or something that doesn't exist? Or, maybe I just don't have the patience and/or attention span that I once did, and anything sufficiently long enough feels like a chore. I just don't understand myself sometimes.

It feels like I'm missing out on something, or that there's something wrong with me such that I can't appreciate or enjoy stories like seemingly everyone else can. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, but it does.

Fiction and narratives are kind of my life. I write fiction as a hobby, it's how I want to express myself. Fiction has the power to communicate complex ideas and themes in ways that I find infinitely more elegant than simply stating them outright. I consume fiction because I like hearing about interesting people who do interesting things, and fiction makes me think about stuff I might not have considered before.

You're emphasizing longform fiction quite a bit, there's a lot of media that falls outside of those categories, or into one, but not the other. There are people who just aren't into fiction of any length or flavor, usually because they can't suspend their disbelief enough to 'feel' events that technically aren't real, but who lead healthy social lives and otherwise have no problem getting invested in people. Attention spans in general are also starting to shorten these days simply due to the fact that life is getting faster-paced, and technology has allowed thousands of media to compete for the average person's attention every day, forcing media creators to grab people's attention fast and refuse to let go. Both situations present very different challenges and approaches to fixing them. I'm guessing that you're interested in fixing this, and I want to see if we can narrow it down.

Have you tried any forms of short fiction, such as short stories, flash fiction, short films, or radio shows? I personally don't like short fiction because I don't feel that there's enough time to develop the story and characters, but you may find it nice if attention span is the problem. Children's lit may also be of some help here, if you can think of any books that you really loved as a kid.

What about nonfiction, or historical fiction of any length, such as documentaries, docudramas, talk shows, (auto)biographies, creative nonfiction, or journalistic works? Things like No Reservations, I Am Ozzy, Stiff by Mary Roach, Flags of Our Fathers, or "Fatal Distraction". And when/if you read nonfiction, are you able to get invested in the narratives/characters, or do you just find yourself caring more about the information?

That brings me to my next concern- I can't really tell what you mean, exactly, by 'not caring about story', 'enjoying story', or 'not getting into a story'. Do you mean that you don't care about the plot and prefer focusing on some other aspect of the work, such as the characters, setting, or themes? What do you feel when you have to consume some narrative that you're not feeling? Do you keep wishing for it to end because you want to do something else? If so, what is that 'something else'? Do you get confused, or does the material just go in one ear and out the other? Do you react to the story in ways that run opposite to how most others feel, such as laughing or rolling your eyes at things that other people find sad or impactful, or do you just feel 'meh' about it?

Well, this has given me a lot to think about. To answer some questions, in no particular order:

— I do like nonfiction, but it's for (as you might have guessed) the information.

— By "don't care for the story," I mean I don't have any sort of emotional connection with the characters or any real desire to care about themes or any of that stuff. Whatever the case is, I don't really get any enjoyment (or whatever it is that keeps most other people coming back for more) out of pretty much any fiction and it just falls flat when it comes to me. I might find a particular setting interesting or I might like some other surface aspect like that, but I don't seem to care about the dialogue, plot, characters, themes, and the other things that are engaging for everyone else but me.

— I don't know why, but I've tended to view the time investment involved in fiction as really daunting. I know from experience that fiction doesn't really have an appeal to me, and I have little reason to think it'll be different again. I also look at the time used in terms of its opportunity cost (I.e., I could be doing something that I know I'd like, or would at least be useful).

As I said above, there are people out there who don't care for fiction because they just can't suspend their disbelief enough to get invested in a narrative that they can tell is about things that aren't real. However, they can also lead normal social lives, and are able to become appropriately invested in friends, family, and other real-world events. At least... that's what your situation sounds like to me.

In fact, it's something I've started to feel for myself, even though I write as a hobby. When I was a kid, I had a lot of trouble making friends and interacting with people in general. Since I wasn't interacting with people enough, I shunned the real world and turned to fiction to get my 'social' fix. Once I graduated high school, I started fresh in a college that nobody from my old school went to and finally made friends for real. I've completed a grand total of four fiction novels since high school mostly due to the time investment, like you. Except I also view reading fiction as research for developing my voice as a writer, and I feel that it's a very inefficient way of doing so compared to actually practicing writing with my friends.

In addition, I'm starting to value my time more, and what I do with it. Although I've enjoyed every minute of those novels that I've chosen wisely, I hate picking up a work of longform fiction that turns out to not be my thing even more. For similar reasons, both time-related and writing-related, I don't really seek out many feature-length movies or TV series anymore, new or ones that I previously liked, and I haven't tried any new video game series in years because of the learning curve. I also don't really get that invested in video game stories. I'll consume them happily, I won't just mash the A button through dialogue or skip cutscenes if I've never played the game before, but they don't really get me thinking as hard as literature has managed to do.

Since then, I've been drawn more to 'real-ish' media, such as YouTube shows. 90% of the media I consume consists of YouTube video bloggers (artsy, comedy, and variety flavors), educational channels, and certain non-Let's Play gaming channels. It also helps that most YouTube content is short-form by traditional media standards. But I'm still very discerning with what channels I watch because I have to like the 'characters' or presenter, or more generally the people depicted. One of my favorite channels is a sound designer's daily vlog about his day-to-day life of doing ordinary stuff with his friends- what got me there was the sound designer himself, who tends to act rather mysterious when he appears on other channels, and what keeps me there is beautiful cinematography and a theme that I just kind of saw in it- that real life is beautiful and meant to be shared.

That kind of grew out of control. I don't know how much of it was actually helpful to you, but at the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with being someone who isn't into fiction if you're still able to become invested in real people and things.

It also doesn't really help me that I tend to associate fiction with work and/or unpleasantness: most fiction books I've read were for school, and a lot of movies I've seen only because I was pretty much dragged to them by someone.

I think maybe I'm also secretly hoping to find out if there is some type of fiction (as specific or unusual as it might be) that I might be interested in after all. I'd like to think I'm not completely hopeless in that sense.

Why, exactly, do you like in Real Life? Then try to find a story that contains said thing.

Yeah, try seeking books that are about other things you like. My dad didn't read anything other than the newspaper for years until he found books about two things he really likes- NASCAR and The Andy Griffith Show. And in my case, Mr. Robot became the first fictional television series I'd picked up in years because I'm a computer science and engineering major, and the series is about a securities engineer who moonlights as a vigilante hacker. I came for the accurate depictions of computing and hacking, and stayed for the characters and the fast-paced plot.

edited 4th Mar '16 8:30:13 AM by CrystalGlacia

Good question! I'm having trouble getting interested in just about anything lately. Even getting up feels like a struggle sometimes. For what it's worth, I've been watching a bunch of videos on You Tube featuring various... "experiments" involving electricity, thermite, microwave ovens, and fire, among other things. Think "Brainiac mixed with Jackass."

The thing is, I'm not sure if I could possibly bring myself to care about little things like "characters" or "themes" or "plot" which, incidentally, are the building blocks of fiction. I'm not sure that changing the setting or premise would make too much of a difference in my case. Even in a best case scenario I could see myself fast forwarding only to the bits that I liked best.

edited 5th Mar '16 11:49:45 AM by gnomon

This is a far larger problem than simply not being able to relate to fiction, something that a bunch of internet strangers can't fix. Have you considered talking to a professional about this?