Home > Fiction
The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology.Fiction is the term used to describe works of the imagination. This is in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. A large part of the appeal of fiction is its ability to evoke the entire spectrum of human emotions: to distract our minds, to give us hope in times of despair, to make us laugh, or to let us experience empathy without attachment. Fictional works— novels, pictures, stories, fairy tales, fables, films, comics, interactive fiction—may be partly based on factual occurrences but always contain some imaginary content.
Fiction is largely perceived as a form of artMona Lisa Although today the word art usually refers to the visual arts, the concept of what art is has continuously changed over centuries. Perhaps the most concise definition is its broadest—art refers to all creative human endeavors, excluding actions or entertainmentEntertainment Entertainment is an amusement or diversion intended to hold the attention of an audience or its participants. Examples of entertainment include: Animation (primarily traditional, computer, and stop-motion) Betting Chat Circus Dance Film Drin, although not all fiction is necessarily artistic. Fiction may be created for the purpose of educating, such as fictional examples used in schoolA school is any place designated for learning. The range of institutions covered by the term varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, the term school refers primarily to pre- university institutions, and these can for the most part be divide textbooks. Fiction is also frequently instrumentalized by propagandaNorth Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the Capitol building. This article is about the type of communication. For other meanings, see Propaganda (disambiguation). Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation, aimed at serving an age and advertisingAdvertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, persona. Fiction may be propagated by parents to their children out of traditionA tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. Tools to aid this process include poetic devices such as rhyme and alliteration. The stories thus preserv (e.g. Santa ClausFor places in the United States with this name, please see Santa Claus (disambiguation). Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas Saint Nicholas or Saint Nick is the American, Latin American, and British variant of the European folk myth of Saint Nicho) or in order to instill certain beliefs and values. FableIn its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale embodying a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. Fable" comes from Latin fabula and shares a root with faber "maker, artificer. Thus, though a fable may be conversationals with an explicit moral goal are not necessarily targeted at children, however.
Fiction may over time blend with factual accounts and develop into mythology. Many atheists perceive religion as no different from any fictional tale, whereas members of religious groups typically explain their beliefs with faith and claim they are fundamentally different from fictional tales (although they may call other religious views fictional). The sociological school of constructivism argues that every view of reality is fundamentally a construction of the self and that a safe distinction between fact and fiction is impossible, whereas the philosophy of naturalism holds that reality can be approximated and truth can be demonstrated through usefulness, allowing the distinction from fiction.
Fiction has often been the target of censorship or boycotts, escalating into book burnings or bans. Extremist regimes like the Taliban have been even more prohibitive, restricting all reading to religious texts. There is an ongoing debate regarding sexual content in fiction and whether or not juveniles can be safely exposed to it; opponents of fiction with sexual content typically label it pornography.
The Internet has had a massive impact on the distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure the income of creators. Together with cheap and powerful home computers, it has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. Through open writing systems like wikis, collaboratively written fiction is also becoming possible (see the Wikifiction initiative).
Fiction is a fundamental part of human culture, and the ability to create fiction and other artistic works is frequently cited as one of the defining characteristics of humanity.
