Fictional Life Theory

In this essay I will be covering a personal theory I have developed that fictional life is comparable to our own, how this is possible and how it can support fictionkin to their identities if considered.

Introduction

Introduction

What is the Fictional Life Theory?

The fictional life theory is a theory that ‘life’ within media, be it written books, digital games, film or animation, has basis as a form of ‘life’ within our reality.

Life is something often hard to define, and though it is often debated as to where the line is drawn, this theory works on the assumption that life is not simply restrained to that of physical biological organisms. Let us rewind a little and see what most components are required for life here. There’s physical mass of course, but there is also a ‘brain’; a component that allows for free movement within the reality it inhabits, and then there is the ability to as a species/entity, to survive. This being usually reproduction, though an alternative is immortality, it is not an easily sustained or beneficial means here.

Now lets look at fictional life with an example of a male human character written inside a book. Physical mass is the first requirement, and though one might at first assume there is none to be found here, this character certainly has mass within the confines of the story. Within his world, he is physical enough to interact with anything that he pleases. There are also the pages his actions are written upon, all collectively building to a solid object in our reality.
Well, one might say this is all fair and well, but the next requirement is locomotion. Yet, within his world, he has that as well. He can move from place to place, interact with whatever he wants and as far as he as a character is aware, he has free will to do any of these things. The ability to move within our world is however limited to us here physically moving the book around. The last requirement is reproduction or the ability to survive through time. Again, in his own world he is capable of such, that is how the character was written. It was the gift that the author gave to him.

So now, what stands out but this aspect of the character’s abilities all being given to him by his author. Does this remove any credit to the term of ‘life’ now? Lets take a look at life here. Did you create yourself physically? No, we are the result of the process of cell creation that has been evolved over billions of years, via sperm and egg your body was constructed as the result of your parents. The gift of life was given to all of us here, we did not take it in knowing what we were walking into. This could also be said that life as a requirement is not be something we can gain through self awareness, as that self awareness is always a result that succeeds creation.
We can go even broader if we wish. Considering humanity, many religious texts depict our being as a creation of a divine overseer. Be it as a species as a whole or our personal conception, our existence is often claimed to be the work of a higher power who’s working are often beyond our ability to fathom.

Now.. Lets compare this to the writings of fiction.

Fiction is the creation of an individual, or a collectives imagination. The creator(s) will move through ideas, concepts and elements their brain creates and use that as a means to form a world and characters within it to tell a story. They work often with elements derived from their own environment, the very basics often being that they will have a world with a flat plane to walk upon, it will often be three dimensional, with many elements within it that make it up. They will often make characters that reflect life here, with physical mass and all the common functions which go along with that, and finally they will have a mind to make it interesting to us with complex minds of our own.
Many times, these fictional worlds are incredibly similar to our own here, though some changes may be made with magic or other fantasy and sci-fi elements, it usually will have a form of logic as to it’s working that the characters either will or have the option to explore and learn about.

Different ways of looking at reality

Introduction

How this can support fictionkin?

Introduction

Sources

Sources here