Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality

Critic and novelist Gold debuts with a refreshing critique of the assumptions imposed on fiction from both sides of the culture wars. Objections to novels and films from the right and left, whether of the “wokeness” in Marvel movies or the “faults of representation” in YA novels, “arise from the same misguided presumptions about what fictional stories do, how they can or should be regulated, and whether they can be justified,” Gold writes. Careful to avoid “false equivalencies” between the right and left but unflinching in her analysis, her wide-ranging study begins with Plato, who worried about fiction’s corrosive effects on children, and spans to the current spate of conservative book bans (which she deplores) and liberal claims about literature’s supposed “empathy-generating qualities” (which she considers dubious). Dusting off Oscar Wilde’s “art for art’s sake” dictum, Gold presents it as the better path, arguing that it “isn’t some sort of antipolitical statement but a highly political one” because of how it promotes not only artistic freedom but a genuine diversity of perspectives. Throughout, Gold blends rigorous scholarship with internet-literate humor, and in the end, she flips the script on fiction’s moral critics, claiming the allegedly harmful effects of fiction are the fault of bad readers, not of bad writing, since readers can’t be stopped from seeing what they want to see. This much-needed beacon guides readers through the morass of present-day cultural discourse. (Oct.)