Not that I read a lot of biographies, but The Autobiography of Malcolm X just has to be one of the best books around. Like anyone who's story is worth knowing, Malcolm X comes in from far left not just in the environment he was raised in, but in the way he perceived the world around him. At one point he was convinced that all white people were the devil in disguise. Even those that were kind towards him acted in that way to disguise this truth. Imagine that. He doesn't use the word devil figuratively. He honestly believed that every single white person was actually the devil in disguise, and their only purpose is to oppress each and every single black person into submission. He may have been crazy, but he was still very perceptive and far from dumb. Imagine that. I wonder how it would feel for a white American living in Malcolm X's time to read this book.

Anyways, I think biographies are a nice change-up to most fiction. When the biography is sufficiently accurate, the main "character" shows the full range of complexity that exists in any single person. Fictional characters are cool too, but sometimes stray so far away from reality that their existence becomes implausible. If you want to make a story that's really shitty just create a bunch of unrealistic characters in an unrealistic plot line. If you do it well enough you might come out with a hilarious story. It's like a magic show. Magicians convince the audience that although it's impossible by the laws of physics for the bunny rabbit to disappear into the top hat and jump out from the magician's hand, the bunny rabbit did indeed disappear into the top hat and jump out from the magician's hand. The bunny rabbit ignored Newton's law of Physics and transported from one location to another instantaneously! Magic! The power of illusion lies within ourselves, in the way that we were created. The desire to unbind ourselves from the laws of the universe. It's another tool we use to reach greater heights.

Unfortunately, there are some things we simply can not ignore. We create aircraft that can counteract gravity, not by ignoring gravity. Food gets placed on the table only through work, and civilizations rise only through War not Peace.