I think there are three or more potential purposes. 1) entertainment; 2) teaching, which you describe as what is the right thing; and 3) developing empathy. To laugh is divine. To learn about how not to be a jerk is truly important and not obvious 😉. To learn about the human experience, what hurts, what brings joy, what causes anxiety, fear and dread is transcendent. To address the latter with depth requires, depending on the story, covering love, sex, illness, death, loneliness, jealousy, etc. The stories that have stuck with me over the years have given me empathy for the human condition.
An anecdote: I have a friend who, like me, is a widow. Unlike me she was also divorced. Though we both knew it wasn't a competition between the two states we found ourselves discussing which was worse. I was sure being a widow was worse. She said, "when you get divorced, no one brings you a casserole." Voila a story evoking empathy for the divorced. Neith entertaining not teaching per se, but enlightening.
I'm not really saying that teaching is the right thing; it's probably too limiting. But it's worth thinking about that one may teach "whether one wants to or no." Hopefully one of the things that a good book teaches is something about empathy ...
On the other hand, nobody is going to read a book because they want to be taught something - or at least not a novel - so it must entertain - I think that's necessary. But is it sufficient? I don't know!
I think there are three or more potential purposes. 1) entertainment; 2) teaching, which you describe as what is the right thing; and 3) developing empathy. To laugh is divine. To learn about how not to be a jerk is truly important and not obvious 😉. To learn about the human experience, what hurts, what brings joy, what causes anxiety, fear and dread is transcendent. To address the latter with depth requires, depending on the story, covering love, sex, illness, death, loneliness, jealousy, etc. The stories that have stuck with me over the years have given me empathy for the human condition.
An anecdote: I have a friend who, like me, is a widow. Unlike me she was also divorced. Though we both knew it wasn't a competition between the two states we found ourselves discussing which was worse. I was sure being a widow was worse. She said, "when you get divorced, no one brings you a casserole." Voila a story evoking empathy for the divorced. Neith entertaining not teaching per se, but enlightening.
I'm not really saying that teaching is the right thing; it's probably too limiting. But it's worth thinking about that one may teach "whether one wants to or no." Hopefully one of the things that a good book teaches is something about empathy ...
On the other hand, nobody is going to read a book because they want to be taught something - or at least not a novel - so it must entertain - I think that's necessary. But is it sufficient? I don't know!