QuoteProject
I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique.
Ken Liu
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Fiction and expository writing serve different purposes in conveying messages.

In this quote, Ken Liu expresses the idea that fiction, while a powerful mode of storytelling, is not always the most effective way to critique contemporary society compared to expository writing. Fiction often allows for emotional engagement and creativity, but it may dilute the clarity of specific criticisms of social issues, suggesting that authors should consider their medium carefully based on their intended message.

Themes

FictionWritingCritiqueSocietyExpository

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of fiction in literature classes.

More from Ken Liu

I get to use fiction as a way to work out my thinking and to delight readers in the process. I can't think of any deal that's better for me, and I'm always so grateful that readers have indulged me as I argue with myself in my stories.
Ken LiuRead
As a species, we tend to live in environments where our own artifacts dominate. The way we shape our environment and are in turn shaped by it is a key theme in my fiction - indeed, it's a key part of a great deal of science fiction.
Ken LiuRead
In creating the silkpunk aesthetic, I was influenced by the ideas of W. Brian Arthur, who articulates a vision of technology as a language.
Ken LiuRead
There are so many different narrative traditions across the world, and each of those traditions has evolved dramatically over time. Once I understood that, I felt truly free; I could write and invent the way I wanted to because there never has been only one way to tell a good story.
Ken LiuRead
The truth is not delicate and it does not suffer from denial—the truth only dies when true stories are untold.
Ken LiuRead
Labels like 'Chinese Science Fiction' or 'Western Science Fiction' summarize a vast field of work, all of which are diverse and driven by individual authors, with individual concerns.
Ken LiuRead

Similar quotes

The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. James won, and it split literature into two streams. But it's a totally false dichotomy.
George R. R. MartinRead
All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.
Ernest HemingwayRead
There was, in my view, an unwritten contract with the reader that the writer must honour. No single element of an imagined world or any of its characters should be allowed to dissolve on an authorial whim. The invented had to be as solid and as self-consistent as the actual. This was a contract founded on mutual trust.
Ian McewanRead
I cannot start a story or chapter without knowing how it ends. ... Of course, it rarely ends that way.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.
Laura HillenbrandRead
One cannot be too careful in the selection of adjectives for descriptions. Words or compounds which describe precisely, and which convey exactly the right suggestions to the mind of the reader, are essential.
H. P. LovecraftRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.