Mythic Truth of Fiction

Why else do we read fiction, anyway?  Not to be impressed by someone’s dazzling language — or at least I hope that’s not our reason.  I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not “true” because we’re hungry for another kind of truth:  The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all:  our own self-story.  Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.

— Orson Scott Card, Introduction, Ender’s Game, 1991 Tor edition

Seeing Clearly

“Often the only way to look clearly at this extraordinary universe is through fantasy, fairy tale, myth.”

–Madeleine L’Engle, Margaret A. Edwards Award Acceptance Speech, June 27, 1998.

Quoted in Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, Volume 12, no. 1, Fall 1998.

The Reading Conspiracy

From Reading Magic, by Mem Fox:

“Engaging in this kind of conspiracy with children is perhaps the greatest benefit of reading aloud to them.  As we share the words and pictures, the ideas and viewpoints, the rhythms and rhymes, the pain and comfort, and the hopes and fears and big issues of life that we encounter together in the pages of a book, we connect through minds and hearts with our children and bond closely in a secret society associated with the books we have shared.  The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.  It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud–it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.”

(page 10)