When we think of political fiction, we often think of books that openly advance a cause or argue a position. But fiction does not have to be overtly political to be a political act. In this talk, I explore the idea that reading and writing fiction are, in themselves, wildly subversive acts of resistance. To create a fictional world—and to enter one as a reader—is to submerge yourself in a distinctive kind of freedom: freedom of the mind, movement across boundaries of time and place, and an imaginative life not wholly constrained by nationality, gender, class, or ideology. Through fiction, we cultivate empathy, protect interior life, and resist the economic and social pressures that would reduce human experience to one of mere utility. In this sense, the life of the mind and the freedom of the imagination become forms of resistance in themselves.