Empathy

 They say reading novels would increase your empathy, because you are identifying with other people. That might be true for some people.  But  I am skeptical.  Wouldn't the same thing happen when watching movies or tv?  You are identifying yourself with the people through whom the narrative is focalized.  Are people who watch more tv more empathetic? Or is there some magic to the printed page that makes this kind of identification better?  

What about novelists themselves?  They have had to read a lot of novels by other people to learn how to write.  And they are creating these empathy encouraging fictions. But a lot of novelists are jerks, or even worse. I think they can be as prone to narcissism or self-absorption as anyone else. Take Salinger or Neil Gaiman.  

I have read a lot of fiction.  I don't think that this has helped me become more empathetic.  To the extent that this is one of my traits, it is something that I have worked on self-consciously because it is the right thing to do. If I fail in this regard, it is not because I haven't read enough novels.  

My hypothesis is that while reading, we do identify with the protagonist.  In a sense we want what he or she wants, or we want that for him or her.  But in our own lives we are still the main characters. Fictional identification is not, primarily, a form of "empathy," because we are still taking that "main character" approach. We can rationalize flaws in a fictional character the same way we forgive ourselves for our own foibles.   

Some narratives encourage you to identity with gangsters and criminals.  We want Tony Soprano or Walter White to prevail over their enemies, especially when those enemies are presented to us as more brutal than the shows' protagonists. We can accept extreme violence in fictional worlds if we have dehumanized the enemy enough.  Do we have empathy for orcs, or for Lord Voldemort?