How fiction can change reality?

[Blind Hemingway]

Reading and stories can be an escape from real life, a window into another world -- but have you ever considered how new fictional experiences might change your perspective on real, everyday life? From Pride and Prejudice to Harry Potter, learn how popular fiction can spark public dialogue and shape culture.

 

[Ms.Wrong]

I read this small part of the story "Where are you going, Where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates..
And now i fear when boys, men, drunken guys, and old dudes hit on me....
Because you'll never know who'll follow you home one day, have a mind boggling conversation with you that will ultimately lead you out the safety of your home due to the psychological terror and rush into your head.

 

[Zidlijan]

I know, for example I have followed and adored horror game/books/comics/etcetera for a very long time but I have come to the conclusion that the most horroful thing in this world is reality itself, Cry said it himself, you should be more afraid of what happens in real life than in the fiction of the games you play.

In my case I live in a country in which basically more people die a year than in a Civil war so it's a little more scary to walk alone at midnight than what happens in most fiction.

 

[Aigilas]

The first thing that occurred to me was The Sorrows of Young Werther, and the suicide epidemic it started.

 

[Zidlijan]

Did it now? I did not know of this I'll have to investigate it...

I also remember that there were people mentally harmed during the making of the Exorcist movie, many say it's not scary or it's BS, but it truly is scary, it causes you absolute phsicological pain and fear and you hardly know what's going on at some point. It's really scary, still it somehow makes me think it was made to bring back the catholics to church.