The Negatives Sides of Fiction Books

The Negative Sides of Fiction Books
Esther Deborah Kalauserang

 

FICTION: INVENTION AS OPPOSED TO A FACT.

Fiction is a type of book which contains imaginary events and people. Mostly the readers of this genre are teens and young adu lts. Fiction itself is an interesting genre to write because of the things written inside, like adventures and fantasy. This type of book takes us to another new world to explore and entertain us much, a book have to be enjoyed. But, fiction has several negative sides. 

 First of all, fiction is created by our imagination, and our imaginations have their own limits; that is knowledge. We cannot write something outside our knowledge to find something new. Fiction will be boring if we get to read the same main idea from different authors, because the topics—such as mythical super powers, heroes, magic—were spun around over and over. Readers can easily guess what will happen next if they know how fiction’s patterns works.

Another weakness of fiction is that when watched the book-based movie and read actual book after that, our imagination will be the same like in the films. We will find it unsatisfying (or more likely disturbing) to imagine some scenes from the film—especially when it comes to bad scenery or actors in the movies—and our brain memories forced our imaginations to pour all of them into the book. 

  People’s imaginations are different from ours, probably uglier or cooler. That’s why some movie directors make some changes in the script. They didn’t really copy 100 percent from the real book, and some of the readers made a protest about it. But it is true. Who want to watch the exact movie like the book? Boring. Well, a few people want to, but me myself expect some differences inside the movie so we cannot guess how the working of fiction pattern happens throughout the film.

Second, fictions aren’t real. The authors just made up whatever they want to happen in their story. They can create anything that they want and put hidden values behind the books. If a child read a book not for his age, then he still cannot make the difference between fact or fiction. He can copy how the characters think and act according to the story. An author can make wrong things right from his character’s perspective and plant it in the reader’s mindset. They will not notice it, if they’re not smart or detail enough to know the contrasting ideas. This is very dangerous, because they can do something harmful to themselves or to others. 

 

For instance, a Russian boy named Leonid Hmlev made a tragic suicide by jumping off from 30 meters above the ground. Leonid did that after he posted a message on the social media that he planned an ending of a story because his favorite character, Itachi Uchiha lost in a battle against his brother in the animated movie ‘Naruto—Hurricane Chronicle’. Later his father recognized his dead body. Leonid watched too much television; he cannot differ the reality and his fiction world. 

The last one, the morals or values can mislead the readers by their opinion that they think it is true. For example, an author from a random book wrote about the character’s parents. They divorced, and the mom lived with another man in the same roof with her daughter though they are not married yet. This daughter was angry at her mom, at first. But, her situation changed her way of thinking later. She find out that her mom’s other person is okay to live with them because that man was kind and kind of helped her from her troubles. She was happy about it, and finally let her mom lived like that. 

The same thing also often occurs in teen books that a girl has a night with her boyfriend together in a hotel room. The main character thinks it is alright because it is a normal thing to do and everybody did it. She actually knew that her parents forbid it, but because of her friends’ opinion, she did it anyways. And the book ended happily without any regret for it. 

Another example was about a person who made revenge to someone who hurt him. He was very ambitious to murder him, and the readers could see how his mind works. His way of thinking was so clear that people thought his reasons are true. 

So, it was the author who decides that it is the ‘right’ thing to do.  The author can make an incredible reason why it is okay and persuade the readers. Maybe at first the reader who thinks it is a false thing to do can change his or her opposing statement into a 180 degree thought because they were influenced by this book. I sometimes got really convinced too for a minute, because the writer really put them in a smart way. Authors should be careful putting their opinions because they still have to remember that the majority of fiction fantasy book readers are teens. Finally the readers were convinced by the books and have a moral decrease.

Fiction books are really something. It has a positive side and negative side. It has advantage and disadvantage. It gives good and bad influences. The important thing is, that everything has their own balance. Words are dangerous things to mess with, but it can bring an impact to all people. Like people said, a pen is sharper than a sword. So does the book. A book can bring influence to people and can change an entire nation’s mindset, both in the negative and positive way.

Raymond Elias Feist

                              -----RAYMOND ELIAS FEIST-----

One of America’s famous novelist is Raymond Elias Feist. He is the one who drags the readers into a new world of fantasy fiction in The Riftwar Cycle books which were consisted of the famously worldwide-known Riftwar Saga, The Empire Trilogy, Krondor’s Sons, The Serpentwar Saga, The Riftwar Legacy, Legends of the Riftwar, Conclave of the Shadows, The Darkwar Saga, The Demonwar Saga and The Chaoswar Saga series. 

He was born in Los Angles in 1945 with the name Raymond E. Gonzales III until his mother remarried and he took his stepfather’s surname. He was raised in Southern California and now lives with his children in San Diego accompanied by the hobby of collecting fine wines, biographies and history—especially history of American professional football.  The reason he wrote these books was because of an idea that popped out on his head of writing a boy who wanted to be a magician. Finally his writings were transformed into amazing works which are still loved, popular and sold over 15 million copies and translated into multiple languages currently. 

I am a big fan of Feist because of his awesome books. Those books have an interesting plot of a whole new world of Midkemia to explore and a lot of character to meet with fascinating olden lifestyle. There were many surprises in the end of the book, or changes in situation. Sometimes they irritated me and made me wanted to protest, but finally—as the plot developed—I understood why it was like that and it gave a better solution. 

Feist must have done some researches of his own. The life in a castle was easily pictured by him without any difficulties, especially when it came to the feudal system and the position of rulers—for instance, the difference between a squire and a warlord.  He really adopted the culture and habits of medieval times, like when a guard happened to see a prince. The expression and way of speaking of that guard resembled the olden times, even in his courtesy towards the high class members. 

Feist also mastered the politics. He played his puppets well when it came for making an offense, provocation, war and political marriage. Sometimes his depiction about the scene which happened in war or a fight was a bit harsh and bloody. It was like watching the movie “Troy” or “Lord of the Rings” in a book. But I think those times were like that, like in Dark Ages. The funny thing was; Feist had a mind of democracy. He did not like slavery, and he used one of his main characters, Prince Arutha, to go against that. He also made Pug, the magician, to destroy a stadium because of a gladiator show to waste human lives. 

I could learn a lot from his works. That’s why I love to read and study from his writings. He left the readers a message from his life. He spent years of writing—since 1982 until now—and created thousand pages of books. If he could do it, why can’t a younger generation of novelists like us make more creations? When can answer that question with ‘yes’, the only thing we’ll need is determination, diligence and a little bit of perspiration. If we get all those, then get ready to see our books on the bookshelf!