Elif Shafak The politics of fiction

Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place

And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place

And it is the French, the avatars of Enlightenment and the Rights of Man, who have stepped in to provide a patina of legitimacy to his political twilight.

In its annual festival this year, Munich s Bavarian State Opera put on a new production of the apocalyptic Götterdämmerung, the final work in Richard Wagner s four evening cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Listening to stories widens the imagination telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.