Fiction and your belief system are intertwined.
I don't believe anybody can be completely 100% unbiased. Stop and recall any recent TikTok video, Instagram post, or YouTube video essay about your favorite piece of media. I don't mean a recommendation page. I'm talking about breakdowns, debates, and long-winded comments. Is that creator unbiased? At some point, we stray away from the facts and dive into our feelings when it comes to fiction.
How Fiction Works
Fiction puts you in a trance-like state the moment you engage with it. In storytelling, there's a phenomenon called neuron-coupling. As we listen and watch a story being told, our brains start to mirror the storyteller.
Not all stories hit the same, so I want to clearly define when they stick with us. In fiction alchemy, my philosophy, successful fiction means a story that connects on a physical, mental, and spiritual level through a single conduit (person).
Even though we consciously know the difference between a real-life experience versus fiction, our subconscious minds don't possess this reasoning. Everything is absorbed without bias and taken as fact. But your conscious biases act as directions for the subconscious mind.
So, how do you direct the stories you absorb?
I'll tell you how I directed my subconscious mind with Samurai Champloo.
Samurai Champloo and Basketball Dreams
I first watched Samurai Champloo around 4th/5th grade.
At the time, I thought this band of misfits was the coolest thing ever. Especially, Fuu. It wasn't a surprise that simultaneously, I decided to be the only girl on my school's basketball team. I got bullied and berated about that decision all year. It was like I created a glitch in the matrix and should now be reckoned. I was only close to two of my teammates, too. But, I somehow still knew it was all okay. Sounds familiar?
This is where my bias comes in.
I believed I was being an outstanding badass. I believed Fuu was, too. But that doesn't mean I didn't face the consequences of the reality of my situation; the bullying was horrid. And Fuu didn't get out of the constant misogyny and dangers around her. But my bias around that anime and similar characters like Fuu, at the time, repainted my view of reality. And I went out to attract more and more scenarios like them going forward into middle school. Until my biases changed.
Bias affects us all, no matter how practical, realistic, or fair we desire to be.
Comment below on a time when your bias around a piece of fiction and its themes reflected in your personal life.
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