The Paramount Purpose of Fiction

I recently read Ayn Rand's The Art of Fiction, where she argues that the paramount purpose of fiction is to depict how man ought to be.

In other words, the purpose of made up stories is to inspire us to make our life, community and world better. Stories include not just books, but plays, TV shows, movies, role playing games, video games, radio plays, etc.

The purpose behind Much Ado About Corona was not to show how tyrannical and deceptive the globalist demons behind the COVID cult are. Instead, my novel depicts how courageous and powerful we "common folk" can be when we unite in opposition to such evils.

Despite being a "dystopian" story, I compare my novel more to To Kill a Mockingbird, rather than 1984 or Brave New World. The latter two books largely depict the depravity of humans. To Kill a Mockingbird did this too, but contrasted it with characters like Atticus Finch, Calpurnia and Boo Radley who showed the potential of humanity to oppose and overcome (even if just a little) the darkness in the world.

Most stories are used as entertaining distractions. But I have to agree with Ayn Rand, the real purpose of fiction is to show us what great things we are capable of.

—John C. A. Manley

P.S. For more on how Much Ado About Corona was influenced by To Kill a Mockingbird head on over here.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/