Why are different readers drawn to different stories?
What We Love
I’m not a fiction reader, even though I write fiction. However, I go through stages of being interested in various types of stories. I can’t remember the last time I read a novel in the traditional way, but I occasionally listen to an audio story while driving or, more often, watch the film version of a story that interests me.
Recently, for instance, I became interested in science fiction. I loved the K-PAX and Project Hail Mary movies.
K-PAX is about a man living in a psychiatric hospital who claims he is an extraterrestrial being from another planet. His psychiatrist slowly becomes drawn into the life-changing mystery, and many of the patients begin to heal and change through their contact with the extraterrestrial man. It was not just the extraterrestrial theme that fascinated me, but the intelligence behind the story — about consciousness, mental illness, trauma, psychotherapy, hypnosis, healing, and the complexity of human beings. The story was grounded in human suffering, but it was very hopeful, buoyant, and often funny.
In Project Hail Mary, I loved the originality of the extraterrestrial being — a strange rock-like creature that felt just as real and intelligent as the human beside it. I was fascinated by the evolution of their communication. Completely different worlds, completely different biological systems, and completely different ways of perceiving reality, yet they found trust, humour, love, sacrifice, and purpose together.
Continue reading “Different People Need Different Stories”
