What a Fantasy Can Reveal About Real Life

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Someone once said something like “Literature is the lie that tells the truth”—although, appropriately enough, the origin of the phrase is uncertain. Straightforwardly, this means that a novel’s invented characters and plots can sometimes help us understand human nature better than factual recitations can. But many of my favorite stories raise the stakes; they revolve around a made-up character who, in turn, makes things up.