fiction absolutely can be intellectual. 1984, 451 Fahrenheit, anything dostoevsky or heinlein.
in fact, by adding that intellectualism is what makes these stand out.
But i do specify non-fiction because I wouldnt say most fiction is intellectual; or if you try to approach some fiction you'll quickly dig deeper than what's actually there and then it's just you superimposing.
The example i like is colour metaphors. Shakespeare will say that a character put a green shirt on. You're supposed to say 'thats just a new shirt, not the colour green' but no. It actually really is just the colour green. You cant dig too deep on most fiction.
Non-fiction slop also exists. You can just not read the slop. Yeah, you probably aren't getting much out of reading generic fantasy novel with self insert protagonist #12373838 but you also aren't getting much out of generic self help book with surface level advice #1537484. I'd argue fiction sticks better and brings more empathy and feeling behind what it tries to teach than non fiction does usually but is best for teaching things through situational understanding. Not everything condenses well into that format though.
in fact, by adding that intellectualism is what makes these stand out.
But i do specify non-fiction because I wouldnt say most fiction is intellectual; or if you try to approach some fiction you'll quickly dig deeper than what's actually there and then it's just you superimposing.
The example i like is colour metaphors. Shakespeare will say that a character put a green shirt on. You're supposed to say 'thats just a new shirt, not the colour green' but no. It actually really is just the colour green. You cant dig too deep on most fiction.