ethics in fiction?
Talk Ethical Theory
This group has been archived. Find out more.
Join LibraryThing to post.
1elvendido
We've all heard of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Fountainhead. What are other (good) examples of an ethic proposed or illuminated through fiction? I'm looking craving some intellectual stimulation to balance out the fluff that is swamping my to-read pile.
2janey47
Lila, by Robert Pirsig
Although it is not, strictly speaking, fiction, it is written (as was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) in a narrative form that can be read as fiction, around which the ethical structure is built.
I also strongly recommend The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt. (FYI, it has nothing to do with the film by the same name). Although it's not as obviously a novel about *ethics* as those you cite above, it is deeply, deeply informed by questions about what makes a life worth living, what do we mean by a "worthwhile" life, and in fact makes explicit mention of Jonathan Glover's great book Causing Death and Saving Lives.
Although it is not, strictly speaking, fiction, it is written (as was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) in a narrative form that can be read as fiction, around which the ethical structure is built.
I also strongly recommend The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt. (FYI, it has nothing to do with the film by the same name). Although it's not as obviously a novel about *ethics* as those you cite above, it is deeply, deeply informed by questions about what makes a life worth living, what do we mean by a "worthwhile" life, and in fact makes explicit mention of Jonathan Glover's great book Causing Death and Saving Lives.
3skippersan
Whether they admit it or not, all fiction writers take a stand on ethical issues by creating the characters they do. Creating a repulsive character and refusing to pass judgment on him, for example, teaches readers that what you used to think of as repulsive is just like you and me.
Having said that, I'll recommend you try something like The Sunlight Dialogues or Nickel Mountain by John Gardner. One of the main characters in Sunlight is a magician who refuses to take responsibility for the things his followers do as a result of their admiration for him. It's a metaphor for the question of whether artists have any moral obligations when they act as artists. Gardner has come down in favor of a "yes" answer to that question in his (immensely unpopular) nonfiction On Moral Fiction, but he makes good on the view in his finely written novels. (I'm not talking of the John Gardner who wrote some James Bond novels, but the other one, the Chaucer scholar.)
Having said that, I'll recommend you try something like The Sunlight Dialogues or Nickel Mountain by John Gardner. One of the main characters in Sunlight is a magician who refuses to take responsibility for the things his followers do as a result of their admiration for him. It's a metaphor for the question of whether artists have any moral obligations when they act as artists. Gardner has come down in favor of a "yes" answer to that question in his (immensely unpopular) nonfiction On Moral Fiction, but he makes good on the view in his finely written novels. (I'm not talking of the John Gardner who wrote some James Bond novels, but the other one, the Chaucer scholar.)
