The only fiction is that sentence is the way I conjured it upon reading it. I invented a conscious memory of Newman (He was at Northwestern once) and then I accepted on faith your statement, even though I have no personal knowledge of his death (I lack direct evidence such as seeing his body). The fiction is in my brain, where it must be. It's the invention of the sentence and the vague memories the sentence evokes, balanced against my faith in your declarative statement. Yes, I'll agree he's dead. It's a fact and my recognition of that fact is fictionally (imaginatively "make believe") supported by evidence I learn from you or can find elsewhere.
Of course I make distinctions between what we say is fact and what we say is fiction. I merely insist that our construction of awareness of the stream of experience is fictional (a selective narrative in consciousness that is more or less verified by evidence independent of our knowing it). --- On Wed, 12/31/08, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Malcolm Gladwell and beliefs) > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 2:59 PM > Ach -- this was badly mangled by me: > > "Please tell us what your word is for those portions > that are NOT fictional > to any degree." > > It was in response to William's: > > > "there are numerous factual histories of the > American Revolution". . . each > > one is fictional to some degree" > > > I would have been closer to something acceptable if I'd > said this: Please > tell us what your word is for the degrees of those > histories that are NOT > fictional. > > Perhaps I can convey part of what bothers by asking: What > part of the > following statement would you say is fictional? And, given > that almost no one else > would that say any part of it is fiction, why do you feel > your position is > preferable to theirs?: > > "Paul Newman is dead." > > > > > > ************** > New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making > headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)
