Interesting bit from Lois McMaster Bujold, on books

[alexxkay]

From a recent interview:

On the opposite end of the scale from “reading for status” or “books as tools for social engineering” (i.e., political propaganda), is the very common use of fiction by readers as a mood-altering drug, which certainly beats most other kinds of self-medication (alcohol, street drugs, cutting) in terms of safety and efficacy. Plus, you might learn things. But I don’t think anyone can figure out how to shelve books by mood.

Some years back, I read an interview with a forensic pathologist who made the remark that he’d never walked into a bad crime scene, the kind with blood on the walls, in a house with a lot of books. These disasters were all in book-free spaces. Makes sense to me—books give a time-out, a place of temporary escape till one’s spirits lift, not available to trapped non-readers. It suggests that genre fiction, which tends very much to be chosen by readers’ mood needs, is not so trivial in its social benefits after all.

In other LMB news, the new Miles book is done, but due to the still-mired-in-the-last-millenium speed of publishing, won't be out until late 2010.

Comments

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Considering that these days, I have certainly been using Miles (and other similar, witty and scrappy heroes) to lift my mood, I have to concur with the author on this use of fiction.

[patrissimo.livejournal.com]

I refer to such temporary escapes as "opiates". Fiction is a great opiate, as is good TV. Opiates are a decent opiate. Alcohol, not so good.