“But Homer (or the stable of poets incorporated under the name Homer)
was either given to polytheistic fantasy or was the genius adapter of a system of
cosmological metaphors that no one—not Dante, not Shakespeare, not Cervantes—
has ever matched for sheer imaginative insanity.”
–E.L. Doctorow, from “Notes on the History of Fiction”
The essential element of fiction is imagination. Yet nearly always is the imagination fired from an existing kindling, whether it be an old myth, a “wives’ tale,” a historical figure, current events—or all of the above. In short, fiction rarely appears out of thin air.
In his wonderful “Notes on the History of Fiction,” the late novelist E.L. Doctorow (quoted above) writes of prominence of stories prior to the Elizabethan Age and the rise of rationalism. “The world was perceived as enchanted,” he says of the Bronze Age and its precedents. Doctorow points put that Homer’s Iliad is an example of wild imagination unencumbered by science.
Of course, in modern times, science—and all of what can be categorized as knowledge, as opposed to fantasy or fancy—has become inspiration for fiction. H.G. Wells made it his life’s work to fashion fictional stories from great clashes between science and imagination. George Orwell observed the political patterns of his time and imagined their exponents several decades later with crystal clear vision and infamous foresight.
Today, fictionalizations of reality form the plots of dozens of books and movies every year—including my own! ULTIMATE ERROR is my fictionalization of an oil spill cleanup gone horribly wrong. It’s fiction based in very real science.
Now, with the advent of technologies that help us explore subatomic particles, we’ve come full circle. Quantum physics may laugh the proverbial last laugh, as “established” science cracks open, revealing a previously unseen world of enchantment, to use Doctorow’s term. I can’t help but rejoice when I think of what Wells might have done with that fascinating tool in the field of quantum physics, the Large Hadron Collider.
So, all of this adds up to an exploration of a dance, really, between fiction and fact. One as old as the human species itself. The word that sneaks in now and again—one that is more complex, more elusive and, ultimately, bigger—is “truth.” Fiction’s power derives from imagination. Fact’s power comes from science. Truth’s power combines science, imagination, and the spiritual realm.
Truth, then is the most powerful of the three. Yet, as I’ve written before, right here on the pages of my ULTIMATE ERROR blog, while truth is indeed stranger than fiction, fiction is often “truer” than “fact.”
My upcoming novel, ULTIMATE ERROR, is about the science of our human existence. More specifically, the ways in which scientific triumphs or failures can affect our survival or demise in the face of widespread catastrophe. The lines between fact and fiction aren’t always clear, but our best efforts are ever worthwhile. Our ability to both see the lines and navigate them makes the difference between continuing life on Earth and crossing into extinction.