Why Fiction Matters

It may be that writing fiction can be seen as wrongful in the context of encouraging people to live lives not their own direct, present experience and therefore to sacrifice what is more real for the sake of that which is less real.
This would possibly be the case if one were to know with any degree of certainty that one will be reincarnated through many cycles of being and therefore able to live an infinite number of completely genuine and authentic lives. This not being known with certainty, reading the fiction of others becomes perfectly acceptable, or at least as acceptable as reading the fictions we label non-fiction. That is to say as acceptable as pretty much any human activity that isn't causing any harm.
Reading provides an opportunity to experience life from a more diverse selection of view points. It allows a period of rest from the most real of realities, the daily grind, the fear of loss, the actual suffering of loss, death and a host of other ills released by Pandora all those ages ago. It is as Stephen King said in On Writing a kind of telepathy, one that can take us into the experience of another life. As such, the stories we read to ourselves can bind us together as a society and as individuals on an intimate level.
How many marriages or even just conceptions have occurred because of the stories we tell ourselves creating a shared reality? We may all be alone inside our heads but we can certainly share a bit of that through our collective experiences in the tales of adventure, romance, and mystery we have in common.
Academics study these stories and analyse them to death. Why? Because it's fun, because it is part of the shared telepathic conversation and to try and find stories so universally relevant that they form the framework of our culture. These acts are useful to us as a society and therefore academic study of the humanities is necessary and enriching in spite of the excessive logorrhea that can be a hazard of the endeavor.
Public sports serve a similar bonding function in the formation of pseudo tribal groups worshipping the same heroes. If we can identify with our chosen champions then not only do their struggles and triumphs become our own but we share them with the other fans. Hell, sometimes the 'enemy' team has more in common with us than those who don't follow sports.
Whether it be sports, books, music, movies, art, or urban legends all the shared experiences of humanity can serve the goal of opening us up to other people and letting us feel the bonds of love, kinship and shared joys and griefs. They allow us to be part of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Internet may eventually be the best tool of human unification we have ever made, so long as we can grow into its proper usage the same way we grow into the correct usage of language. Every form of communication has probably gone through the evolutionary process from idea to reality to cultural touch point and we are fortunate in being alive at a time when we can see the process in action and participate in its growth.
I know now that I will continue to study because i finally found the answer to the question I started asking six years ago.

Q. Why should I bother with more academic bullshit?
A. Because it is in fact an integral part of how our culture experiences storytelling and it is one environment where you can hope for someone who might actually sit still for a diatribe on the merits of comic books as modern myths or the nature of Hugh Hefner as a genius.

I will probably pick a different specialty since I seem to have more of an interest in the meta thinking on understanding the dynamics of culture than in the minute study of English literature.