Fiction and Non-Fiction

The novel is a story which tells us something indirectly, for we do not expect to find the characters in a novel existing out in the world. There is a content to the novel which we would declare to be true, even as we would also declare the novel itself a work of fiction. It is interesting to consider where the negation lies in the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. One would think that that which contains no element of fabrication would be denoted with a word, and that which is fabricated would be contrasted with it by negation. In vain do we try to extricate reality from the body of fiction on which it depends.