"Amir is going to be a great writer," Baba said. I did a double take at this. "He has finished his first year of college and earned A's in all of his courses."
"Junior college," I corrected him.
"Mashallah," General Taheri said. "Will you be writing about our country, history perhaps? Economics?"
"I write fiction," I said, thinking of the dozen or so short stories I had written in the leather-bound notebook Rahim Khan had given me, wondering why I was suddenly embarrassed by them in this man's presence.
"Ah, a storyteller," the general said. "Well, people need stories to divert them at difficult times like this." (11.78-82)
The General intends to slam writing here as if he's a WWF wrestler and writing is a competitor who just insulted his mother. The General dismisses fiction as mere storytelling. As a diversion for people during "difficult times." How accurate is the General's comments? Does Amir write for diversion in "difficult times"? Do you think Amir feels guilty because he's not writing about Afghan history? Does The Kite Runner itself fulfill the General's requirements for serious writing? Or would the General call it mere storytelling?