Is Reading Fiction Educational?

C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and others like them would have addressed this question before, I'm sure. I haven't yet read Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories, which should cause everyone to shake their heads in disappointment. But someday I'll get to that and other things, we hope.

I'm wondering how much I learned from my mother reading us a lot of stories, versus how much I formally learnt. I remember thinking (subconsciously) a great deal about what was read to me, but I don't know how much of what I thought about was merely from the stories, or was from other things told to me in the actual homeschooling we did. Since talking to my mother about the way I thought as a child, she's told me she actually taught us the principles I was applying to the things I (for lack of a better term) experienced.

But it does seem that a lot of what was written in the earliest stories I can remember having read to me had a big impact on me. I sifted through what was truly unrealistic and what was realistic. I seem to have tried to see what I could use and apply. I obsessively wanted to make sure I didn't miss things... though I wasn't ever very methodical about thinking. It's just that I never wanted to be found to have not picked something up that I could have. I did not want to be out of the loop (because I sometimes was and hated how it felt).

I am convinced, though, even though I don't know how much I learned being told and how much I figured out myself, that the stories we read have provided the foundation of my thinking today. We did precious little actual formal study of critical thinking or logic. I wish we had, because it would have allowed me to articulate all that I'm thinking now. I have really only scratched the surface of being able to articulate what I'm thinking. But because I'm so much older now, and feel I have so little time to do all the things I want to, I would like to know just what books I ought to read to start getting to being able to articulate Logic more clearly. I know, though, without someone to recommend good books, I'll have to just read some and figure it out for myself, but obviously, that takes time.

So we'll see. If I'd had more of a rigorous classical education, I would probably be a lot farther along now. But it's wonderful the lessons I learned which instilled themselves in my subconscious and help me today. I wish I could clearly see how much was due to the fiction we read, and how much was due to other things. It seems useful knowledge.

(Knowing this may be a little confusing or just stream-of-consciousness.)

Gimli: The Reluctant Christian

This is taken from another blog of mine, date of September 3, 2016, and edited somewhat.


A raw thought from watching Lord of the Rings just now-

Gimli reminds me of a person who is reluctant, due to misconceptions, to come to God, but in the end, becomes enamoured with Him.

He dislikes the Elves, and is very distrusting of them, and he believes Galadriel is basically a witch. Then he meets Galadriel and is transformed: he respects her, and sees her as the most beautiful and good (not requiring romantic affection, O Modern People). It is very like how we close-minded humans are skeptical of God- superstitiously suspicious of God’s goodness, looking at the good things of God as unrealistic (unlikely); even treacherous.

But then you know Him, and you see that, though in some ways you may have been right, He is good; the things you suspected really were true and good are His things, and He is Beauty Incarnate.

It is amusing how stubbornly Gimli defends Galadriel’s honour against Eomer in the Two Towers. An unlikely outcome, yet more realistic, because things are not always as they seem.