fiction can pose questions and thoughts in ways that non-fiction never could.
Like, for example, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. do you think it would have been cool of her to pursue the questions posed in that book- humanism, the nature of life, sapience and the power of creation; the hazards of science and morality of research gone amok- or do you perhaps think maybe posing it as a story raised induring questions?
What about The Day The Earth Stood Still, written at the start of the Red Scare- and questioning the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction?
How about the plethora of books looking at sexuality under the guise of fantasy? do you think, through the years, those authors would be safe? Or any of the fantasy and scifi, or the speculative fiction that dares ask ‘what if…’ around some uncomfortable topics? Like freedom.