Fiction and reality

Warning for discussions of abuse, delusions and other potentionally sensitive topics. These are purely my thoughts and feelings, feel free to disagree.

Lately—the past few years—I've been wondering the line different people really draw between reality and fiction, in multiple senses of the word. An obvious question most people may wonder is about murder in fiction. Why do we have such a large amount of it in media? Why can people like, even love characters, who are murderous? And how come abuse is seen way differently in some cases? A lot of people are willing to love evil characters, but a lot draw the line at abusive ones. I'll tell right now that I understand their point of view, I myself take abusers a lot more seriously than murderers in fiction. But that's the question, why? Technically, murder is one of the worst things you can do to another human being. My current theory is that murder is a lot more distant to a lot of people, due to not many people having murderers close to them personally. It's also the morbid curiousity that causes people to be fascinated over murderers in real life, a fascination that has been around since humanity and murder has been. However abusers are, unfortunately, a lot more common, a lot more personal, and thus sensitive to a lot more people. But isn't that just so interesting? Perhaps it gives us a clue to the way people draw lines between reality and fiction..

But then what about the aspect of delusion? Those, who believe they are a character in real life? Who believe certain characters are real, when they are not? This aspect I'm still learning about. There are simply not enough resources and information regarding this topic. I have wondered if I am delusional before. I used to very confidently talk about how a set of characters are exactly like me, hell, they are me. Those characters were created by me, I was a young teenager, would you excuse it because of that? Or do you wonder if claiming certain characters are me, delusional? I dreamed in their perspective afterwards. I've daydreamed in their perspective. Does that worsen, or better it? I was lonely, I can say that, but is that an excuse too?

What about fictional media that comforts people, that some people rely on. Fictional media can also shape how the mass thinks, perceives, and feels about certain people and topics. Is that not fiction inherently affecting reality? You could say that aspect is not so bad, as the movies people watch, the books they read, the art they see, the songs they hear, are usually stories constructed by people to express themselves and tell message(s) behind that story; often about friendship, love, moral lessons, and so much more. It's similar to a friend telling you about a story in real life, isn't it? So it's fine, right? But what about 'harmful' media? People have been arguing for ages what is or what is not good media for people to engage with..

There are a lot you could wonder. So many other topics I left out with this question.

Ayways, I only wrote this because I have a character who used to be abusive in the past, and is now trying to find redemption. And I've been going insane over this character. Just absolutely loving the fella. So, you know.