Stories are important. Those of us who are naturally imaginative may hold this conviction very strongly, even though it may be difficult to express in mere words. We just know that stories affect us deeply—they make us feel so much more alive. For those of us who are the more pragmatic, realist type, we may hold to a more skeptical view. Some pragmatists may even go so far as to say that stories are of no importance whatsoever, merely being sources of mindless entertainment to pass time better served doing something actually "productive."