Dangers of Reading Fiction

The story “On the Danger of Reading Fiction”, Thomas Jefferson clearly shows his dislike for the world of fiction novels. Jefferson has stated that fiction novels are “time lost in that reading” and thinks it should be instructively employed. It’s apparent that anyone who is a fiction novel enthusiast could indeed become offended by the comments made by Jefferson, but at the same time need to understand that he made those comments in an entirely different era than today’s modern way of thinking. There are several comments made by Jefferson besides the ones stated that need to be addressed and understood to be only opinions from a traditional past-minded person. Jefferson’s take on fiction novels takes a very negative and closed-minded approach. At first I thought he was a little bias towards fiction, but later understood that he just did not like it at all, period. There could be many reasons for this that were not discussed, but nonetheless were clearly expressed in the text. I personally do not agree with the negative approach he took simply because he never attempted to find a positive point to say about fiction and its qualities. But that also led me to think that it could have been in Jefferson’s era that fiction had not yet boomed into the giant it is today.

In today’s era, fiction novels and material can be found almost everywhere you look. Tabloids, news, movies, and many other media and novels alike thrive on fiction and the imagination it brings. Each person has their preferences on type of entertainment they like. Some enjoy strictly fiction while others like only factual novels and such, and some may enjoy reading both. But the thing to understand is why they do so. People from all around read fiction novels because it creates imagination and helps ones to escape into a “fantasy world”, or maybe just to amuse themselves to lower some stress and increase positivity. Jefferson’s comments about fiction novels where he stated, “Some few modeling