PhilGoetz comments on [LINK] The power of fiction for moral instruction - Less Wrong Discussion
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The depressing thing is that the fiction that gets read is the fiction that people like to read, which is fiction that does not instruct them but tells them they're wonderful just as they are.
A corrective has historically been the concept of good literature. See for example George Eliot, Anton Chekhov, etc.
I've often wondered why we like reading bleak stories. That sounds like the explanation is that reading Chekov makes you feel like "a great, wise, and observant man".
I agree, but it may be that the best way to accomplish that end, or at least the route Chekhov has taken, is actually to make wise observations. If we are capable, as a culture, of sometimes recognizing writers whose observations are indeed wise, who help us to simulate the experiences of other people, or better possible selves, with high fidelity, then good literature is probably worth a look. That has been my experience, at least. (Another reason to enjoy reading bleak stories might be an aesthetic appreciation for the beauty of the language, for example.)
Examples of instructional fiction?
I've been thinking lately that one could attribute greater "nutrition" to works that cause the perceiver to have a more accurate world model. The effect degrades over time without continuous intake.