Creating Reality

Just because something is “made up,” that doesn't necessarily mean it isn’t also real.

Our entire legal system is invented. Human minds came up with the concept of money. Insurance is an elaborate contrivance. Yet these things offer palpable, tangible, measurable, quantifiable benefits and can, conversely, do great and terrible harm.

It’s easy to take a bong rip and declare, “money isn’t real, man” and feel clever. But when you find yourself on the street and hungry because you don’t have any money, it sure starts to seem real.

Language in all its multitudinous forms is totally made up, but it’s an indispensable tool for communication and makes society, civilization, and complex abstract thought possible.

So when we talk about fiction, and the importance of the shared stories that weave our common narrative and underpin our sense of cultural identity, whatever that might happen to be, I think it’s important to remember that widely agreed-upon fabrications are just as real and useful—and every bit as dangerous—as anything we can weigh on a scale.

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My author page:
www.AustinScottCollins.com

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