Truth, fact, fiction

"Do you understand what I do?" a client asked.

I confessed I didn't. I knew he was involved in something highly technical that encompasses telephony and digital networks, but that's about a clear as mud to me.

"Huh. I thought you would because you write science fiction," he commented.

"I write science-babble,"I replied.

Fiction is often used to convey truth, not fact. Indeed truth and fact are not necessarily the same, although facts are true and truth often encompasses more than fact. Author G. K. Chesterton's oft-quoted comment about children and dragons illustrates this perfectly: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

Really, the same goes for pretty much any genre of fiction, not just fairy tales. In fiction, facts support the story: they're props. Facts give the story those elements of realism that ground the reader. A grounded reader who trusts the author more readily takes the author's figurative hand and venture with the author into the realms of the impossible. This is known as the suspension of disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite in fiction. It enables the reader to accept certain unrealistic premises, such as a teenager can be a skilled and valuable member of Her Majesty's Secret Service or that a young woman abducted by aliens will find her one true love somewhere in outer space.

I think this ability to accept a key premise of the absurd is critical to one's preference for fiction or nonfiction. Those who state they never read fiction miss out on a lot of good stories because they cannot entertain impossibility. There is no room for magic in their lives, regardless of whether magic truly exists.

That, of course, remindes me of an anecdote related by photographer Robert Vavra involving his friend, author James A. Michener. As the story goes, Michener met a woman during his morning walk along a beach. They enjoyed a companionable silence.

One day during their shared walk, she asked him, "Are your James Michener?"

"Yes, he replied."

"Do you know Robert Vavra?"

"Yes," he replied.

A moment passed. She asked, "Do unicorns really exist?"

"Yes."

I'll bet she enjoyed fiction.

Readers who enjoy fiction, however, find themselves disappointed by errors in fact. They soon learn that they cannot trust an author who bungles the facts and will not trust that same author with greater truths. This includes authors who get simple details wrong (never refer to a gelding as "she") to those who fail to perform their due research (elite military teams don't hold hands while traversing an unknown underground cavern).

Fact supports truth which may be most creatively and interestingly conveyed through fiction. A well-told story captures and holds the reader's or listener's attention, thus facilitating that transfer and fomenting comprehension. Truth, however, depends on facts for support and supplies meaning.

Sometimes truth is all that distinguishes between what one can do and what one should do.

Every word counts.

#fictionwriting #henhousepublishing #hollybargobooks