I walked into my nearest Barnes & Noble a few months ago, and I remember seeing this quote on a table that said "Literature is a luxury; Fiction is a necessity." -G.K. Chesterton. At the time, I wasn't into reading fiction. I had the mentality that- if I was going to use up my time reading, it had to go to some benefit like learning how to manage a business or your personal finance. I believed that the main benefit of fictional reading was for entertainment. Which, isn't bad. But I could wrap my head on how it was a necessity?
Eventually I started reading books on creative philosophies- where does creativity come from, how is it nourished, how to spot it, etc. My favorite lesson -which I learned from Rick Rubin's The Creative Act- was that a work of art is the artists interpretation of the unseen world.
It is known by many that although we can live within the same confines of society and the world, we also are capable of formulating our own perspectives. To get even more complex, these perspectives are as unique as nature itself. For example if you shatter a window of glass with a hammer, it is unlikely to repeat the same exact pattern of shattered glass, no matter how many circumstances you attempt to keep the same. If there were a pair of twins that grew up in the same abusive environment, due to each of them having their own conscious, there would be no guarantee that their resulting personalities would end up the EXACT same. One twin may be driven to leave such environment, while another might be inclined to continue replicating that environment in adulthood.
If I told you to make me a drawing of a desk/table, our individual drawings would have similarities like a flat top supported by 4 legs. However because of our intrinsic differences in perspectives, we can differ in an infinite amount of ways- whether that be the color or medium of the drawing, the observed material of the table, it's length, shape, setting (if-applicable), etc.
To sum up my point, Art is the uniqueness given by the artist. In providing art, we present a perspective -a window- for other people to see how we view the world.
Understanding this, we can begin to recognize the beauty and necessity of fictional writing- after all, fictional writing is an art presented through words. As mentioned earlier, I didn't recognize why fictional writing would have any benefit to my time except for entertainment. Now comprehending the value of art, I now recognize that fiction was a means of presenting a unique perspective of the human experience. Since many fictional stories tend to focus on character or plot development, the work provides us with empathy of such possibilities. It provides us themes and morals to look upon and think about when faced with similar questions in real life.
My favorite way of explaining why reading is important is that it is a way of performing "mental calisthenics." It trains the mind to see things different from the way they are, the way we have been taught, or perhaps a different way we've ever heard. For fictional works- most notably in first-person pov- we are placed in the mind of a character who's circumstances may be similar to what we've known, and are able to bear witness to how their backstory affects the decisions and outcomes of the plot. In a third-person or omniscient perspective, we can recognize how entities intersect- how a college student's choice of buying coffee before class affects why a bus driver suddenly chooses to become a Broadway dancer. The connection is super far-off but nonetheless the use of creativity can make it so.
We are blessed to have the technology of writing, and institutions that still put a value on literature. Though if one were to neglect the abilities to comprehend literature, then it would be evermore paramount for them to understand fictional work, as it breeds the tools to live life, whether that be with decision making, self-reflection, determining morality, or finding purpose.
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