RE: On problems of fictional characters being "not real"

Here's the Undying again, slowly but steadily catching up haha!

I have an experience to share on this subject. I once dated someone who was an asiduous reader, and I really couldn't understand at the moment the reactionary stance that person took one night I said 'fictional' characters have a soul of their own and live and breath and walk around just as we do - well, not just as we do, but yes haha This person was so enraged at me, telling me that I lived only in a world of fantasies, that I strayed from real people by idealizing characters and creating personas for myself and characters of my own.

But I stood strong. Was I really straying from the human experience for doing these things? Because my personas are impressions of my features, of the aspects of my existance, explorations on what I believe I am, and so are my characters (or at least, so I intend them to be), modeled after my very human experience, by the people I meet, by those I admire, by the ones who left an impression on me and of those I'm struggling to understand...

So I asked: "Do you not weep when a character that's important for you dies? Do you not smile when they triumph, as you would with a friend's victories?" and, most importantly, "don't you know deep in your heart, when you see a character twisted on some sick fantasy, that that's not the way that character would behave, effectively pinning a personality to them? One that you are familiar to and allows you to predict their actions in some way or another, just as you can predict those of the 'real people' that surrounds you and you know well?"

She stood quiet and I rested my case ahaha

But yeah, it is what you say. Characters are real indeed, and they are aspects of this universe as tangible as we ourselves are. I think people sometimes give too much importance to the flesh, holding on to the physical dimension of their beings as if it was the only proof of existence.

Thanks for another great post :D