rwallace comments on On Juvenile Fiction - Less Wrong
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Consider, e.g., books in which magical things go on. Narnia or Harry Potter, say. I wouldn't worry much about children becoming serious believers in magic as a result of reading such books, or actually expecting that if they crawl into a wardrobe they might find themselves in another world. On the other hand, in such stories it's usually true on some level that Good Always Wins In The End, or that Love Conquers All (for some notion of "love", usually not the same one as in escapist material for adults), and I think children are more likely to absorb that sort of idea uncritically.
Well yes - that's the point of fiction, it's an ingredient of the miracle by which civilization is built from killer apes.
Could you be more specific about what particular feature you're saying is the point of fiction?
I believe he's implying that fiction can convince us that Good Always Wins In The End, or that Love Conquers All, and that, to some extent, these beliefs become self-fulfilling.