Living in Fiction

If you anything about me, you know that I love reading. I love being submersed in an amazing, fictional world, and being pulled along for the story.

This goes for any story. Books, of course, are my favorite format, but there are many formats to tell a story. Movies. Graphic novels. Even a web series can be a phenomenal and touching look into a character's life.

Last year I started watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, one such web series, a modern-day video blog adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I loved it from the beginning--Pride and Prejudice is such a wonderful and classic love story, and the team behind the web series is amazing in how they adapt and develop everything. The characters just draw you in, expressing the ups and downs in hilarious and meaningful ways.

But lately, things have taken a turn. Recent events in the web series are the equivalent of Lydia's running away in P&P, but it's so much more heartbreaking for this Lydia. It's gotten to the point where I've told interested friends to avoid starting to watch the series because I don't want to inflict the emotional trauma on them.

Or it could be that I just get too involved. If I care about something, chances are I care about it a lot. And fictional stories and characters are no exception. In fact, I'm amazed at how much I can care for someone who doesn't actually exist.

It's not a bad thing, necessarily. In many parts of my life, I tend to become emotionally invested, even if I don't have to be. I think that I, and perhaps many other people, simply like to be emotionally engaged. We like to hear stories and respond to them. We like to connect with other people, real or fictional. And I think that's wonderful.

So if a narrative can grab me with the emotional power of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries or the Fault in Our Stars or Les Miserables, all the better. I continue to breathe fiction, learning more about my own emotions and other people's amazing stories.