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I for one feel that fiction can be as educational as non-fiction. In this post I'm going to be talking about books, although some of the things are valid for movies and such as well.

For starters there is the interest-inspiring factor. Reading historical fiction, for instance, can help someone pay attention to and remember what they later learn on the subject from non-fiction sources. It's a lot easier to learn about something if you can find an emotional connection to it, and it's a lot easier to connect emotionally to something presented in fiction than in something presented as hard facts.

Then of course there's the emotional education of it. You can learn a lot about humans by reading. Of course characters in a book aren't always like characters in real life, but good authors make them as much that way as possible. You can learn about yourself, too, by thinking about how you can relate to different characters and finding out how you feel about different things that the characters might do. A lot of fiction literally gets you into someone else's head, and even if that person is imaginary it's quite an experience.

There's also the simple inspiration. This can happen from anything, but I think it's easier from fiction. You read about people doing courageous things, about people in love, about people being happy to be themselves, and it changes your life in some way. It makes you want to do something, or realize you shouldn't be doing something, or just give you a little more guts to do what you're already doing. I think just about everyone has at some point in their lives come away from reading a work of fiction with some sort of inspiration in their heart. Certainly most authors were inspired to write but great works of fiction, but I'll get to the writing subject in a moment.

Fiction also allows you (or tricks you into, it depends on how you want to think of it) to think about real-life issues in a more objective way. Allegorical fiction has probably changed more opinions than any campaign that admits it's doing so. Not that allegorical fiction is sneaking about it, really... a lot of authors don't even realize they're doing it. But as people who live in the real world, everything an author writes about has something to do with the real world. I'm nearly starting to ramble about the writing process itself here, so I have to stop myself. But the point is, if you can look at something outside of your pre-established biases, you can look at in a whole new way and maybe learn something new about it.

Now, my favorite bit about the wonders of fiction. It applies only to a select group of people, but as a member of that select group I think about it a lot. The truth is, some of the most important parts of my education came from fiction. To make it sound even worse, I'll add that most of this is fantasy. It's teaching me many of the things I mentioned above, but it's also teaching me how to do what I want to do with my life: write novels. Other aspects of my education are of course important, and I keep up on them even though my main passion is novels, but it's the fiction that I'm getting real use out of.

Please discuss.

when ever you discover something new, its learning.

it is a simple fact^^.

I think fiction reading is just as important as non-fiction because it can really teach you about not only whatever time priod the book is set in, whats happening, etc. but about writing styling. Also, quite frankly there entertaining.

Well, I'm definitely in favor of literature. We will be using Ambleside Online to educate our child, which is based largely on using "living books" to teach children. There are lots and lots of things that can be learned from great literature.

comic books can often lead into very complex ideas and higher vocabulary, if they are the right kind of comics. (I learned "dichotomy" reading infinity gauntlet, for example).

Manga can deal with very adult situations and real japanese anime can be extremely philosophical or educational. Getbackers and Gunslinger Girl come to mind. Novels can also be very good but also very bad. For example "Atlas Shrugged" had a wide variety of impacts on young minds and still does today.

I think a well rounded person with a well rounded education will read materials of all different sorts, both fiction and non-fiction. You're correct that there are some things fiction does teach well; there are other things (say, physics,) which are better taught through other means.

I am so moderate!