Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided, Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths. As for nonfiction, for history, it may be real, but its truth is slippery, hard to access, with no fixed meaning bolted to it. If history doesn't become story, it dies to everyone except the historian. Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.
—
Yann Martel, in
Beatrice and Virgil
Really great quote. I read today a quote from a Greek philosopher, "Myth is something that never was, but always is." Fiction can serve this purpose of undying truth, so that in a way, what is "false" may be objective, and what "true" may be completely subjective.
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