On 23/01/2008, at 3:42 PM, Klaus Krippendorff wrote:
> are you buying into russell's theory of logical types, david?
Not at all, just trying to make sense of what you are saying, but
without much success.
If, as you say, all non-fiction is fiction, then I don't think you
have said anything useful.
I have a fairly good idea in ordinary usage of when to describe
something as fiction and something else as non-fiction. When I go to
my local library or book shop and see signs that point me to fiction
and non-fiction, I know which section to go to for books on gardening
and where I will find books by Agatha Christie. It is of no value to
me to be told in that context that all non-fiction is fiction. If I
follow your advice I will look in the wrong place for gardening books.
If the fiction/non-fiction distinction works usefully why would I
abandon it? I can accept that gardening books are 'socially
constructed', and that there are some works that sit uneasily at the
boundary of fiction and non-fiction, like Moby Dick, but I still find
the distinction useful.
When you say: THE WORLD WE KNOW IS FICTION, I don't know what you are
saying that would fit into any of the normal contexts in which I would
use the terms fiction and non-fiction.
David
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