The importance of stories and delving into fantasy, fiction

I have become more aware of a family trait whenever I or my brother return home after a month or two of being away: We really enjoy reminiscing. All four of us enjoy reaching into our past experiences for a good story that makes our audience crumble with laughter. We can do this for hours. And it matters little whether the story has been told or retold, as long as it is told with enthusiasm and it entertains. There are times when we become so lost in this activity that we don’t leave the dinner table until an hour or two after we had finished eating.

It is no wonder to me that I love to read and write fiction — the love of good stories was taught to me from birth, though I failed to realize it until recently. I have found this is not unique to me or my family, but that most every person I befriend also enjoys a good story. Certainly, not everyone enjoys pleasure reading, but those who don’t read watch Netflix, or go to the movies, where stories are made real, in a sense. A nameless and strange magic overtakes us when we are gripped and absorbed in a good book or movie, where the events being told to us seem as real, as our own existence, or even more so depending on the story. There is oftentimes, for me, a feeling of wonder or despair or love that lodges itself in my psyche, which seems to be lacking in my everyday experience. In other words, the world or universe of a good story produces longing, in that it appears to be richer and fuller than our own.

Yet I do not place the ultimate value of stories on the emotions they produce in us, or the strengthening of our empathy, or the degree to which we can escape in its world, though these are certainly ingredients. Stories and storytelling are valuable, indeed essential, because they capture, reveal and explore deep human truths. To me, this is the mark of a good story: the degree to which a story communicates to me my existential condition as a human.

I have thus far been discussing fiction and fantasy, which, I imagine, are the first impressions of the average person when the word “story” arises in conversation. But this is a misleading and misguided idea, for we not only tell fictional stories, but also real ones. And of these real stories, they do not simply consist in past personal experiences, but we tell of the universe’s origins, of why we exist, of where we are going. I think of not only the creation story of “Genesis,” but also of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s hit show “Cosmos.” Both atheists and theists tell stories about the universe; It is the way we make sense of the world. The central difference between these stories and fiction is that we believe the former to be true and to be a true account of reality.

This is why I am a Christian — I see the biblical story as being the one that accounts for reality as we know it, in all of its complexity, beauty and brokenness. Not only that, I understand the biblical story — creation, fall, salvation, redemption — as being a true one, which gives me a large vision of the world, in that I am a small part of this larger story.

This is also why I am an English major, since I am primarily a truth-seeking human being who sees literature (stories) as a primary and essential vessel for communicating deep human truths. I study English because I want to understand life, myself and others. Though I still appreciate stories like my family’s, those who simply make me laugh and keep me around the kitchen table for a few hours.

Scott Stinson is a UF English sophomore. His column appears on Wednesdays.