[coldtea]

>How does one learn to appreciate such things?

Depends on one's mental make up as well. E.g. Aspies have a hard time with such things (your description sounds like classic spectrum).

It's not something dehabiliting, but it is like missing a lot of nuance and "dimensions" of the world. I have many of the same problems in person to person interactions (but not with fiction - and I mean the more lyrical, feelings-related part of fiction too).

>"He proposed to her in a park with friends."

As a developer, notice how this loses a lot of the informational content. Did he want to propose? Was he forced to? Did he feel anxious about it? Did she? Why did he chose this place? Does the setting tell us something? Did something in the environment made the experience worse for them?

>But my attempts to change this hasn't work (like forcing myself to see more fiction).

Try books too. I think some authors work better than others. E.g. Borges classic short stories might be a good place to start (The library of Babel, etc). Perhaps some sci-fi. Things with a mental focus as opposed to a sentimental one. You could then incrementally jack-up the sentimental/empathy part of the literature you read.

It's also about enjoying the journey (e.g. the descriptions, emotional states, etc.) not just the destination (the plot, the "what do I get out of this book" in concrete terms).

[CRConrad]

> >How does one learn to appreciate such things?

> Depends on one's mental make up as well. E.g. Aspies have a hard time with such things (your description sounds like classic spectrum).

> It's not something dehabiliting, but it is like missing a lot of nuance and "dimensions" of the world.

Idunno, wild speculation: Could this be related to the old "Read the book first, see rhe movie only afterwards!" phenomenon? You know, where people recommend getting into a story as pure text first, so you can envision it the way you want, before getting it locked into your head as some film-maker's vision.

Maybe those of us who recommend this order (I frequently do) have some of the traits of your "classic spectrum Aspies".

[coldtea]

The traits usually associated with Aspergers are, e.g. "Inability to understand emotional issues", "First-person focus" (struggling to see the world from another person’s perspective), "Abnormal response to sensory stimuli", late or less development of social skills, etc.

So I think the "read the book first" is probably orthogonal, whereas the "I don't get the point of literature/poetry" is closer to a common Aspie type. Getting literature and especially poetry, for example, is (among other things) all about having or developing an intuitive "first-person focus".