ABSTRACT
Fiction and poetry enact worldism in three ways. Already mentioned is that fiction and poetry give voice to all classes and hues of subjectivity on a simple, daily basis, without requiring certain thresholds of wealth or technology. Second, fiction and poetry provide the most direct means of illustrating the multi-layered, mutually-penetrative, dynamic interactions among contending ways of thinking, being, living, and relating. As suggested by the quote above, our world is not set in stone. The possibilities are there even when “truth” and “reality” seem to be the only options available. We argue, similarly, that by drawing on fiction and poetry, we can shake us loose from the familiar and the conventional to consider the supposedly unthinkable and impossible. Third, fiction and poetry, as sites of linguistic engagement, instantiate the worldist commitment to democratizing social relations and generating alternatives for community-building through syncretic engagements. Unlike other art forms, fiction and poetry, especially when orated, rely on a symbiotic collaboration between the artist (author or poet), the medium (story or poem), and the audience. Fiction and poetry, as we articulate them through worldism’s relational ontology, create the possibility for a common meaning that binds a community. In Chapter Eight, we demonstrate this symbiotic collaboration with a play.
