Fiction

I suppose, and this is probably an obvious remark, that we enjoy fiction because it is safe. We can vicariously experience the Fall of an Empire. Sitting in an armchair, we read that:

"The Long Night follows the Fall of the Terran Empire. War, piracy, economic collapse, and isolation devastate countless worlds."

-Sandra Miesel, CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION COMPILED BY SANDRA MIESEL IN Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 795-804 AT p. 803.

I trust that we do not enjoy reading about the suffering caused by war and devastation. And writers like Poul Anderson do not dwell on the details of such suffering. That would be highly unpleasant and we would certainly object to it.

Fiction simultaneously entertains and addresses serious issues. War is real now. Ecological collapse is imminently possible now. Will humanity survive the Chaos?