The Fiction–Reality Bridge: The parallels of Fiction and Nonfiction.
In this article, I explore how fiction and nonfiction mirror each other in real life, and the lessons that we can draw from fictional tales.
The first book I bought is How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov. Although a nonfiction book, it got me thinking about the link between reality and other forms of entertainment. In this case, it was reality and a board game.
I was a young chess enthusiast then; my heart was filled with gratitude upon gaining access to my role model’s internal thought process. My path was validated. Until then, I had read almost exclusively fiction. Kasparov’s book spoke directly to my interests.
Authors of fiction and nonfiction invest years in research, travel, and interviews to produce a book. The fruits are the rich characters we encounter in the novels and emotions that feel real—often resembling real life.
What are we taking home unconsciously through fictional tales?
Attention to detail has become a cliché. Few illustrate it better than Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie.
His murder investigations hinge on small inconsistencies.
Hercule Poirot pays more attention to detail than most of us claim on CVs. “Order and method” are key takeaways, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd tops the list in demonstrating Poirot’s investigative framework.
As global reading trends lean toward fiction, it would be interesting to observe how reading fiction affects the reader’s real-life perspectives.
There are several real-life stories that sound familiar from fiction stories. The sharp decline of telcoms giant Nokia reflects a familiar fictional pattern. Similar to Okonwko’s fall in the literary novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, failure to adapt resulted in costly repercussions for Nokia
Two entities, both alike in status, met the same fate due to fear of change. Okonkwo feared to be seen as weak, just as management of Nokia avoided being labeled as losers to the point of misrepresenting facts to senior management.
If Nokia’s decision-makers had truly internalised Things Fall Apart, they might have recognised a key warning: adapt or lose.
Likewise, similar patterns between fiction and nonfiction can be drawn from other fiction genres; unlikely even. Spy fiction is often dismissed as unrealistic. Yet the works of John le Carré and Frederick Forsyth reveal bureaucracy, psychological strain, and tradecraft. Novels like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold tell us something important—blind loyalty is dangerous, not only in politics, but everywhere. The few books I have just highlighted here are like a spec of dust in relation to the galaxy of fictional tales with realistic points to take home.
So, the next time you sit down to enjoy fictional tales, think about what it could mean for you in real life. Indeed, the bridge of fictional entertainment and real life situations gave birth to creative nonfiction, a genre that has seen increased demand and use since its inception in the 1970’s. Jenneate Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, sets two worlds seemingly different, into a unified exciting learning journey. Fiction and nonfiction are two narrative styles both alike in intent to convey meaning and explore the human condition.
