When someone tells me that they don’t like reading, I think that they haven’t found the right book yet.
I admit that I’m not impartial, in fact I chose to study literature at University, but I honestly believe what I said.
Stories are much more than creativity.
They are a representation of humanity and the society we live in.
Even genre fiction, with monsters and space crafts and utopias, truly reflects our objectives, our fears and our values.
During one of my history classes I remember being told that “History is written by the winner”.
Stories, on the other hand, can tell both sides.
Especially recently we try to give more space to those that used to be unrepresented in literature.
Books are not written only by white men anymore.
We don’t have to hide behind fictitious names like the Brontë sisters had to.
It’s true that, quantitatively speaking, we don’t cover every social group in the same way, but we are slowly getting there.
We finally deal with new topics and problems and hear new voices.
We finally hear stories about working-class people, black or ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and people who are part of the LGBT community.
Reading these stories is important, it makes us more human.
Our storytelling traces back to the birth of mankind, when we started drawing on walls, we narrated our adventures and we still do.
Stories are our legacy: the lives we lived but also the dreams we have for the future.
Brilliant article! I totally agree with everything you’ve stated, especially: “Stories are much more than creativity. They are a representation of humanity and the society we live in.”