Fiction has always been more real to me. It's more comfortable, more reasonable, more imaginable and more natural than what the world deems to be reality. Fiction is the form that my thoughts, memories and realities take. Now, let me make this one thing clear: I don’t live in "La La Land," nor do I live in denial of realities around me. I'm fully aware of and in tune with life and all that goes on in it. I do my best to be locally and globally conscious and connected. I do this to remain grounded in this world, for the sake of my personal and professional life, relationships and career.
Nevertheless, in my reality the magical, phantasmal and unimaginable aspects of life hold dominance. They're the nuances that highlight my life and identity. It has always been so. Even as a child, the "fictional" wonders of life were much more real and memorable to me than what was truly real, tangible or comprehensible. I guess I can equate and credit such experiences to an overactive and unruly imagination, rather too often fueled by my father's (a filmmaker and writer) and grandfather's (a poet) lives and personalities.
As a child, everything was larger than life, bolder and more beautiful than ever. I grew up as a romantic and an endless wanderer of the wild and wonderful. I didn’t have words or definitions for it then, but all I knew was that there was so much more to life than what we simply saw with our eyes. My life, imagination and reality were and still are governed by what I feel. I believe that fiction is found in what we feel and what we feel is true. It is who we are.
“The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us--the poet--whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” ― Audre Lorde
Truly, Lorde was on to something. Thoughts are meant to confirm our beings and our realities, and even though they often confound them, feelings liberate them! There's something absolutely glorious in surrendering to fiction. It's a transcendental journey into other lives, worlds and possibilities. Fiction is a safe encounter with the world, the unknown and the unimaginable. It enters frontiers with grace and entrances life with wonder and potential. Fiction is liberation.
Nevertheless, fiction isn't a means to an end; it's whole on its own. It's a celebration of life and its secrets. One shouldn't reduce fiction to a function. Fiction isn't meant to represent reality in beautifully bowed metaphors. It's a reality of its own; it's the mysterious part of life, rather too often desperately reduced and deduced for comprehension and coherence with what we call real. Fictional stories can transcend the borders we built for ourselves. Fiction can reveal what truly makes us human, what makes us real.
An old Eastern parable once said that, “Knowledge that takes us not beyond ourselves is far worse than ignorance.” This is how I relate to fiction and non-fiction. Fiction provides me with knowledge about life that absolutely takes me beyond myself. It goes beyond knowledge and insight; it becomes wisdom. Fiction offers me with daily transcendence. So as a writer, artist and creator, I choose to bask in the glories of fiction. I dwell in its wonders and savor its liberation. I will tell the tales that will take you beyond yourself.
