So as I mentioned the other day, I've been running/playing in an RP based around an activist blog run by and for Reyvateils. Its purpose as I conceived it was to both explore the legitimate issues raised by this species' creation and situation, and to raise the profile of activism issues within the fandom by getting people to sympathise with the issues through a fandom they were interested in.
Today, I think it actually had that impact on me. Last night, I'd been participating in a thread involving underpaid restaurant workers who were wearing "tip us, we sing" badges (like the ones at Coldstone Creamery) because the hourly wage alone couldn't pay for their life-extending agent, and so they were forced to sell out their song. For Reyvateils, this is a big deal; it's not just vocal noise, there's a big part of their identity and deep inner self expressed when they sing, and it's something that both induces intense emotion in them and drains their energy quite a bit.
Then this morning, a friend posted a blog entry about employees at Starbucks and how she felt bad for them, and how she was trying to be encouraging and pleasant to them and they were really squee about it because she was the only one to have given them nice comments all day. And I just really... felt it, was moved by that, and felt like I wanted to go around being nice to Starbucks employees too (I don't normally drink at Starbucks when on my own, but employees of similar places, I guess). And I think the reason I was able to feel so hyper-aware of how much that must mean to them was because I'd been roleplaying that thread.
You always hear people scoffing at the idea that fiction could ever change someone's attitudes in a positive way (as if that wasn't what the messages in fiction were there for? As if it's all just pretend serving no purpose, even when it's obvious the author is trying to make a statement about how we act in this world?). Whenever you come across anyone acknowledging that fiction might impact a person, it's always regarding the negative aspects of it, how it can desensitise people to violence, to vengeance, to wanton cruelty. I do believe that there are, certainly, fictions that can do that; but I think what goes woefully underrecognised is the power of fiction to make us empathise, which seems like such an obvious thing to say about fiction (it makes us feel for the characters? Really?) yet is rarely thought about in terms of how that might impact how we go about our daily lives.
I felt like the experience of fiction connected me, today, with the lives of people in this world who deserve acknowledgment and respect. And I'm glad for that.
Letra - Eldharia ~Inori Saku Mori~
2 months ago
2 comments:
Fictional characters and situations have changed the way I appreciate the world, as well. There are many things that we can't understand, won't understand, until we have walked in the shoes of someone who does understand. We don't normally go out of our way to do that, or have opportunities to try it in the real world, so fictional worlds allow us to personally connect with situations that we otherwise can't.
A lot of it applies only through analogy; we can't actually know the pain of accepting or not having Diquility, for instance. But maybe we can relate that to the pain of not having reliable access to medications upon which we have become dependent.
I've also found that a lot of fictional characters change... Even the most cynical, traumatised, and shrewd people have the potential to change completely over the course of a story. I find that very encouraging. Nothing is set in stone as long as you allow yourself to accept that it isn't... It's a hope that applies to both oneself and to others. It contrasts with the disillusionment and dystopic realism that seems so common in our time.
I've learned more about how to be a better person from fiction than from anything else, ever.
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