I was reading a novel and found a chapter with a typical feeling we can get when we see that something we believed is a lie, or when we read/watch fiction and we get too immersed and feel like it is real.
In the novel, they were trying to find teachings in fiction. As if one owed loyalty to parents who never existed. I was musing about it, thinking that one could find teachings in other lives and carry them over, at least those that apply.
In the end, I realized that this, too, might be a bit of a spook. One never owes loyalty, either in this or any other life. In the end, the only way to reason about this that I find valuable is as 'lived reality' vs 'perceived reality': reality in the end is simply perception; one cannot be sure of what is real and what is not.
All the other talk is just that, acceptable reflections, and I think that's one thing that can be taken from fiction. For example, if we see a life that seems idyllic and desirable in a piece of fiction, we might wonder why, and try to strive toward a similar life. If we find something that is dislikeable we might reflect on why and see if we find equivalences in our own life to cut out or improve.
The teaching in the novel was kind of weird, as I said, relating to having loyalty for a father that doesn't exist. Sounds like dream logic, where things aren't true or false but simple perceptions that meld together.
Ultimately, the weirdness coalesces into a feeling that the main teaching that should've been there in the context was that even if what you see is fiction, it is still something you "see", and it is just as valuable as reality in the matter of perception, though not as valuable regarding learning action patterns and their consequences. (i.e. if you see a movie where monkeys are a danger to the peaceful living of elephants, it wouldn't be reasonable to carry over that teaching to reality as it is simply not true outside that realm)
Idk why I ended up rambling about this. I just got a bit triggered about the novel's "moral" about carrying loyalty for fictional beings just because you identified with a character with such loyalty.
