Truth And Fiction

I have said this before but it bears repetition. Indeed, some aspects of fiction seem to be always new and fresh however often contemplated. Sometimes, a text exists not only in our world but also in the fictional world that it describes. For example, in our world, The Strand Magazine published short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle whereas, in Sherlock Holmes' world, it published (identical) memoirs by Dr. John Watson - which became alternative history fiction in SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers!

Any first person narrative raises questions like: Whom is the narrator addressing? Are we to understand that this fictional character is writing an account for publication in his world? Sometimes the question is answered. In Poul Anderson's"How To Be Ethnic In One Lesson," James Ching tells whoever reads his account how he gained a Polesotechnic League apprenticeship. In Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate, Hloch tells his Avalonian readers first that Ching kept a private journal and secondly that this extract from that journal is to be reproduced in the Earth Book.

Anderson's Steve Matuchek telepathically broadcasts Operation Chaos between universes, so that it is mentally received and written down as fiction, whereas he buries Operation Luna in a bank vault. In Anderson's There Will Be Time, Poul Anderson's Maurai future history is a fictionalized account of a future society described by a time traveling acquaintance of a relative of Anderson's.

The human author of Last And First Men thinks that he is writing fiction and indeed he is distorting most of what the Neptunian narrator transmits to him. CS Lewis wrote a true account of Weston's and Ransom's journey to Mars but fictionalized their names! A personal friend and former colleague of James Bond wrote inaccurate accounts of his exploits! Dornford Yates' Richard Chandos narrates nine novels, sometimes implying that his accounts are to be published but also disclosing confidential information that could not possibly be published. It makes no sense to tell the public that two people kept the secret of their feelings towards one another! Ambiguous.

Examples proliferate.