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Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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Notes on Conceptual Fiction

Here's the original text of my essay from 2009 on the significance of non-realist fiction

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Ted Gioia
Jan 01, 2000
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Notes on Conceptual Fiction
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From the manuscripts of Jules Verne (Wikimedia Commons)

1.

Is it possible that the idea of "realism" as a guiding principle for fiction is itself unrealistic? After all, there are no Newtonian laws in stories—an apple can just as easily fly upward from a tree as drop to the ground. Characters can ride a magic carpet as easily as walk. Any restrictions are…

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