I upvoted your comment because what you said was interesting even if I disagree with the overall sentiment.
I agree that fiction is good for raising difficult questions and exploring nuance. I also agree that didactic fiction can be a bit off-putting. However, most fiction expresses a writer’s beliefs about the world and what they value (most writers will take inspiration from what they already know and what they think). When the writing is good, this tends not to be off-putting because the writer handled this with enough nuance. An author’s best guess of what is good or bad (or true or false) can still come through pretty clearly without the reader feeling like they have to agree with them because there’s enough going on, there is enough complexity and enough nuance, in the story for readers to be able to put different emphasis on different elements (and therefore for readers to feel free enough to come to their own conclusions for the author’s point of view to not be off-putting).
Simple messages in fiction, dealt with no nuance, make for bad writing. Fiction that makes readers think and confront difficult questions can make for much better fiction. It doesn’t follow that fiction can’t change people’s impressions of what is good or bad (or true or false). If you can change people’s impressions of what is good or bad (or true or false), it seems worth taking that into account. Is it a good goal for fiction to confront a reader with any difficult question without considering whether this difficult question is worth thinking about over other questions? My guess is, in full EA spirit, that it is better to choose which difficult questions to ask (especially if some difficult questions will lead people to missing questions/considerations that you think are way more important).
I think maybe a good goal for fiction could be to leave the reader with a better understanding of your point of view/the way you see the world than if they hadn’t read your piece whilst also having them see the nuances/complexities involved (because there generally aren’t ever simple answers and fiction can be a great way to explore that).
I upvoted your comment because what you said was interesting even if I disagree with the overall sentiment.
I agree that fiction is good for raising difficult questions and exploring nuance. I also agree that didactic fiction can be a bit off-putting. However, most fiction expresses a writer’s beliefs about the world and what they value (most writers will take inspiration from what they already know and what they think). When the writing is good, this tends not to be off-putting because the writer handled this with enough nuance. An author’s best guess of what is good or bad (or true or false) can still come through pretty clearly without the reader feeling like they have to agree with them because there’s enough going on, there is enough complexity and enough nuance, in the story for readers to be able to put different emphasis on different elements (and therefore for readers to feel free enough to come to their own conclusions for the author’s point of view to not be off-putting).
Simple messages in fiction, dealt with no nuance, make for bad writing. Fiction that makes readers think and confront difficult questions can make for much better fiction. It doesn’t follow that fiction can’t change people’s impressions of what is good or bad (or true or false). If you can change people’s impressions of what is good or bad (or true or false), it seems worth taking that into account. Is it a good goal for fiction to confront a reader with any difficult question without considering whether this difficult question is worth thinking about over other questions? My guess is, in full EA spirit, that it is better to choose which difficult questions to ask (especially if some difficult questions will lead people to missing questions/considerations that you think are way more important).
I think maybe a good goal for fiction could be to leave the reader with a better understanding of your point of view/the way you see the world than if they hadn’t read your piece whilst also having them see the nuances/complexities involved (because there generally aren’t ever simple answers and fiction can be a great way to explore that).