Fictional characters, fictional feelings?

Anyone who loves reading will talk about how the story and the characters stay with them long after they close a book. Many people will also tell you about the period of grieving that can take place after experiencing a good story. The time it takes before you feel mentally and emotionally prepared to read something else. The time it takes to mull over the detail, the meaning, the relevance to your own life. The time it takes to let go of the characters you've spent the last several days, weeks, or even months with. Television, film and video games can also have a similar effect. So, the question I have is: what exactly is the relationship we share with fictional characters? These are just thoughts and observations, and as usual, I'd love for people to join the conversation. So feel free to comment and share, discuss, disagree, whatever. I've also included some images that just might remind you of how emotional fiction can get... feel free to let everyone know how many you recognize/ if they broke your heart all over again.

You can honestly only ever watch this movie once. Never again.

I remember some time ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about our favourite characters from television. We got onto the topic of what characters we were attracted to. We both admitted to having become so enthralled with a character that there was literally a period of "getting over" them when the show finished. As if we had been rejected by them. Or had been in a relationship that was now over. There was a point in time where we had to consciously convince ourselves that there was no chance we would ever be with that person. Because they didn't exist.

I felt there was an obligation to include this one. Sort of that classic "feels" moment...

It seems strange at first, but it isn't so different from what happens in many fandoms. Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Star Trek, etc. All of these things have massive followings. People who dress as characters, write fan fictions, hold annual cosplay events. What exactly is the attachment we have for fictional worlds and characters? Is it really any different than what happens in " real" life?

Is your crush on Daryl Dixon as real as that crush you had on that guy at the office?

Are the tears you shed for a certain headmaster as meaningful than the ones you cried for your mentor who passed away?

Is that feeling of coming home when you hear the familiar whir of the Tardis as genuine as when you return after a semester abroad?

I don't think the answers are as obvious as many would think. And I really think it would be naive to immediately devalue our feelings because they are directed at a fictional entity.

I called Alex at work sobbing after watching only 5 or so minutes of this movie...

I'll start with celebrities. A lot of people feel emotionally attached to celebrities. Fans gather in droves to events, just to get a signature. They cry and create tributes when they pass away. Celebrities are real people, but I would argue that our perceptions of them aren't real. Our feelings are often based on characters they played in films or television. Even when we go out of our way to watch their interviews, read their biography and maybe meet them in person, we are still only seeing a minute part of who they are. Their interactions are also being filtered through the media, public relations personnel, and any persona they may have adopted to make fan interactions smoother. Though there is a real person out there named Ryan Gosling, our image of him is largely fictional. Our feelings are for the man we believe him to be, more so than the person he actually is. 

Not gonna lie, I cried.

To break this down further, I would argue that a similar concept applies to all of our relationships. How many times, when a relationship doesn't work out, do people say: "(S)he's not the person I thought (s)he was?" Or after a person passes away, you hear stories that make you question whether you really knew that person at all? When we know someone, I believe our brain creates a rough image of who we believe that person to be. We use this image to anticipate reactions, make judgements about their character, etc. It's like when we talk about the importance of first impressions. Our brain is designed to take a limited amount of information and stretch it as far as it can. (For anyone interested in psychology, this is also similar to how we fall prey to stereotypes.)

:(

 So, basically, all of our interactions are interactions with the image we have created of a person. Our fiction of that person. When you feed your brain information about a fictional character (or world, or event), I believe it interacts with that information much the same way that it does any other information. We have an image of Batman/ Bruce Wayne that tells us what he looks like, his background, his qualities. We use this information to predict his actions - this is why we can recognize when a character is written poorly. If someone writes about Batman shooting villains, we go "hey, that's not the Batman I know" because it doesn't fit with the mental image we have. It's much the same as when I ask Alex if he wants to go for sushi and he says no, "Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?"

<3

 

Now, obviously there are differences between fantasy and reality. A two-way relationship is one of those differences. Fictional characters don't respond when you ask them a question. You can't learn any more about them than what's on the page. You can use your aforementioned mental image to make inferences about their behaviour, but you cannot definitively know their response to something. Therefore, there is a limit to which you can "know" a fictional character and then have to resort to filling in the blanks yourself. There is a level of exploration that you cannot achieve without a real person. The same applies to settings and events as well. 

Here's a tough one. I cried so many times during this show.

Of course, it doesn't mean the emotions we feel about fiction aren't real. As I said, our brain is sorting the information similarly to how it would sort any other information. So our attraction to a character, our feelings of familiarity, our sense of loss... these are all occurring as if they were real. Does this not mean the feelings themselves are real?

This of course raises a lot of questions about reality. If our interpretation of the world is based on perception and a series of personal fictions... where is the line between reality and fiction? Is there one? Ah... but we'll save that for another day.