3. What is Fiction?

All fictions contain some fact. While Hilda Ogden is clearly fictional, such characters do exist. In that sense at least she is something of a truth about the world. Similarly, while Hilda’s home town of Weatherfield is an invention it’s one structured around reality. If nothing else the accents – even if the dialogue is totally fabricated those accents are a true part of Manchester, a truth about the world.

Christians have a long history of trying to squeeze Jesus out of public life and reduce him to a private little Savior. But to do this is to ignore what the Bible really says.

2. A Slice of Life

Reality is a complex place, for all intents and purposes infinitely so. Representations on the other hand are necessarily finite. There’s only so many hours in the day to observe things, and only so much time to draw, paint, sculpt, film, or write down those observations. You can’t just keep adding detail indefinitely, and any attempt to do so would result in something strange rather than something realistic.

While most consumers of fiction are perfectly familiar with the metaphor, far fewer have even heard of the metonym. This is odd considering its importance in creating plausible stories. When it comes to understanding how fictions ‘come alive’ the metonym is the key.

Narrator: It seemed as if they regarded their own children with a kind of contempt, as being only fit to grow up to be the servants of the children of such people as Rushton and Sweater. But it must be remembered that they had been taught self-contempt when they were children. In the so-called ‘Christian’ schools. they attended then they were taught to ‘order themselves lowly and reverently towards their betters’, and they were now actually sending their own children to learn the same degrading lessons in their turn! They had a vast amount of consideration for their betters, and for the children of their betters, but very little for their own children, for each other, or for themselves.

For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being A Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

A tale of old tells of a certain king who each year invited a selection of his subjects to a banquet to celebrate the annual harvest.

Many were invited –old and young, rich and poor, simple and sophisticated, people of all religions and races, men and women from all over the kingdom.