Reading Lolita in Tehran Lesson Plan

What does Azi mean when she says: “Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth”?

Much of this memoir is about the importance of fiction to society. Many people come to fiction in order to see their lives reflected. This is partly why diversity in fiction is so important. This quote from Azar suggests another reason for approaching fiction: to find revelations of truth. The idea in reading and studying fiction is not to find books that mirror our reality but rather to appreciate and excavate books that get at the deeper...