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74-421: It is the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space , alien lifeforms , and interplanetary warfare . It has been described as "the first known text that could be called science fiction ". However, the work does not fit into typical literary genres : its multilayered plot and its characters have been interpreted as belonging to science fiction, fantasy , satire or parody , and have been

148-499: A chasm in the ocean, but eventually sail around it, discover a far-off continent and decide to explore it. The book ends abruptly with Lucian stating that their future adventures will be described in the upcoming sequels, a promise which a disappointed scholiast described as "the biggest lie of all". In one view, Lucian intended his story to be a form of literary criticism , a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth. He mentions

222-744: A 1990 series of short stories about the Vietnam War . Fictional works that explicitly involve supernatural, magical, or scientifically impossible elements are often classified under the genre of fantasy , including Lewis Carroll 's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings , and J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series. Creators of fantasy sometimes introduce imaginary creatures and beings such as dragons and fairies. Types of written fiction in prose are distinguished by relative length and include: Fiction writing

296-560: A battle for territorial and colonization rights." "The king of the inhabitants of the Sun, Phaethon," said Endymion king of the Moon, "has been at war with us for a long time now. Once upon a time I gathered together the poorest people in my kingdom and undertook to plant a colony on the Morning Star which was empty and uninhabited. Phaethon out of jealousy thwarted the colonization, meeting us halfway at

370-652: A box with magical plants. They escape to Rhegion and then to Metapontum , a center of Pythagorean studies, where they meet with Astraios once more. Continuing with him, they travel all the way to the lands of the Getae and the Thracians , where they come across the Thracian (and probably also Pythagorean) sage, Zalmoxis. Zalmoxis predicts that the siblings will finally get to Thule, where the unintentionally-committed crime against their parents will be atoned for by them willingly suffering

444-548: A certain Phoenician noblewoman named Derkyllis, a native of Tyros . Derkyllis and Deinias fall in love with each other, and she reveals to him the sad and rather convoluted adventures she endured alongside her brother Mantinias. Years later, an elderly Deinias confides the stories of Derkyllis and Mantinias, as well as his own experiences, to Kymbas, an envoy of the Arcadian League , sent to Tyros to summon Deinias back home. In

518-404: A certain point of view. The distinction between the two may be best defined from the viewpoint of the audience, according to whom a work is non-fiction if its people, settings, and plot are perceived entirely as historically or factually real, while a work is regarded as fiction if it deviates from reality in any of those areas. The distinction is further obscured by a philosophical understanding, on

592-447: A completely imaginary way or been followed by major new events that are completely imaginary (the genre of alternative history ). Or, it depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understandings or capabilities (the genre of science fiction ). Contrarily, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is, in fact, real and whose events could believably happen in

666-471: A figure from history, Bonnie Prince Charlie , and takes part in the Battle of Prestonpans . Some works of fiction are slightly or greatly re-imagined based on some originally true story, or a reconstructed biography. Often, even when the fictional story is based on fact, there may be additions and subtractions from the true story to make it more interesting. An example is Tim O'Brien 's The Things They Carried ,

740-663: A journey to the outermost edges of the Oikoumene . Beyond the Pontos they reach the springs of the river Tanais and the Rhipaean Mountains , and, beyond these, the outer ocean. After a long journey across Oceanus—in the course of which three traveling companions called Karmanes, Meniskos, and Azulis join them—they at last reach the legendary island of Thule (perhaps Iceland , the Faroe Islands , Shetland , or Norway). There they find

814-695: A major impact on the creation and distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure royalties are paid to copyright holders. Also, digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg make public domain texts more readily available. The combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet, and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. The Internet

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888-486: A memorial and buried. At night they awake. Thus it turns out that the spell of Paapis only lasts during daytime, with the siblings alive and well during the night. Subsequently, the siblings' companion, Azulis, and the Arcadian travellers, Deinias and Demochares, begin to study Paapis' books of magic. They search for the means to relieve Derkyllis and Mantinias from the vampire-like curse that haunts them, hoping as well to help

962-433: A peace agreement. Lucian describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth. After returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a 200-mile-long (320 km) whale, in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, against whom they wage war and triumph. They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by propping its mouth open. Next, they encounter a sea of milk, an island of cheese, and

1036-447: A similar fate. So the siblings are off to Thule, still hunted by the evil Paapis, who confronts them again. Engaging some magical spell, he spits at their faces. This induces in them a deathlike sleep from which they can only arise after every sunset. Thruscanes, a resident of Thule and witness to the alleged murder by Derkyllis and her brother, kills Paapis along with himself. Yet, because the siblings are believed to be dead, they are given

1110-570: A subset (written fiction that aligns to a particular genre ), or its opposite: an evaluative label for written fiction that comprises popular culture , as artistically or intellectually inferior to high culture . Regardless, fiction is commonly broken down into a variety of genres: categories of fiction, each differentiated by a particular unifying tone or style ; set of narrative techniques , archetypes , or other tropes; media content ; or other popularly defined criterion. Science fiction predicts or supposes technologies that are not realities at

1184-501: A university or a similar institution, and with the continuation of such positions determined not by book sales but by critical acclaim by other established literary authors and critics. On the other hand, he suggests, genre fiction writers tend to support themselves by book sales. However, in an interview, John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific,

1258-434: A written work of fiction that: Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature , in the narrow sense of writings specifically considered to be an art form. While literary fiction is sometimes regarded as superior to genre fiction, the two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction , romance , etc., to create works of literature. Furthermore,

1332-508: Is a part of media studies. Examples of prominent fictionalization in the creative arts include those in the general context of World War II in popular culture and specifically Nazi German leaders such as Adolf Hitler in popular culture and Reinhard Heydrich in popular culture . For instance, American actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin portrayed the eccentric despot Adenoid Hynkel in the 1940 satirical film The Great Dictator . The unhinged, unintelligent figure fictionalized real events from

1406-453: Is all lies. He also promises a sequel but it is not known if such a sequel existed. Modern science fiction critics do not necessarily view the satirical streak of the story as conflicting with modern notions of science fiction. The defining element of science can be found in Lucian's specific and effective approach to identifying false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy, which

1480-446: Is also used for the development of blog fiction , where a story is delivered through a blog either as flash fiction or serial blog, and collaborative fiction , where a story is written sequentially by different authors, or the entire text can be revised by anyone using a wiki . The definition of literary fiction is controversial. It may refer to any work of fiction in a written form. However, various other definitions exist, including

1554-439: Is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to realistic or plausible individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genre of realistic fiction is characterized by a greater degree. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often, the sub-genre of fantasy ). Or, it depicts true historical moments, except that they have concluded in

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1628-490: Is known as fictionalization . The opposite circumstance, in which the physical world or a real turn of events seem influenced by past fiction, is commonly described by the phrase " life imitating art ". The latter phrase is popularity associated with the Anglo-Irish fiction writer Oscar Wilde . The alteration of actual happenings into a fictional format, with this involving a dramatic representation of real events or people,

1702-446: Is known as both fictionalization , or, more narrowly for visual performance works like in theatre and film, dramatization . According to the academic publication Oxford Reference , a work set up this way will have a "narrative based partly or wholly on fact but written as if it were fiction" such that "[f]ilms and broadcast dramas of this kind often bear the label 'based on a true story'." In intellectual research, evaluating this process

1776-492: Is most long-established in the realm of literature (written narrative fiction), the broad study of the nature, function, and meaning of fiction is called literary theory , and the narrower interpretation of specific fictional texts is called literary criticism (with subsets like film criticism and theatre criticism also now long-established). Aside from real-world connections, some fictional works may depict characters and events within their own context, entirely separate from

1850-427: Is often described as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered". The tone of literary fiction can be darker than genre fiction, while the pacing of literary fiction may be slower than popular fiction. As Terrence Rafferty notes, "literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way". Based on how literary fiction is defined, genre fiction may be

1924-427: Is only synoptically reproduced by Photios , and it seems probable that the contents of his summary do not conform to the novel's actual extent. It has been assumed that a substantial part of the summary contents are meant from starters to be read as paradox material . The assumption is also supported by Photios himself explicitly admitting to noticing digressions and bays. As far as interpretation and classification of

1998-407: Is the process by which an author or creator produces a fictional work. Some elements of the writing process may be planned in advance, while others may come about spontaneously. Fiction writers use different writing styles and have distinct writers' voices when writing fictional stories. The use of real events or real individuals as direct inspiration for imaginary events or imaginary individuals

2072-513: The Verae Historiae ( True Histories ), but J.R. Morgan has more recently questioned this accepted notion upon extensive comparative study of the two works. The current knowledge of the novel's content is from Photios, who left a brief summary in his Myriobiblos , a lengthy volume advising his idle brother, Tarasios, which books to read. Two sections in Porphyry also partially survive, where

2146-583: The Apista , at least in parts. This view was not widely accepted. Morgan has rejected Reyhl's thesis flatly in his own study of the matter. Of course the problem basically lies with the lack of any original text. Surviving traditional texts (e.g. the Aethiopica of Heliodorus of Emesa ), as compared to their corresponding summaries of Photios in Myriobiblos , add a word of caution. To base far-reaching deductions on

2220-700: The Island of the Blessed . There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War , other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras . They find sinners being punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies, including Herodotus and Ctesias . After leaving the Island of the Blessed, they deliver a letter to Calypso given to them by Odysseus explaining that he wishes he had stayed with her so he could have lived eternally. They discover

2294-422: The human condition . In general, it focuses on "introspective, in-depth character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters. This contrasts with genre fiction where plot is the central concern. Usually in literary fiction the focus is on the "inner story" of the characters who drive the plot, with detailed motivations to elicit "emotional involvement" in the reader. The style of literary fiction

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2368-521: The 18th and 19th centuries. They were often associated with Enlightenment ideas such as empiricism and agnosticism . Realism developed as a literary style at this time. New forms of mass media developed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, including popular-fiction magazines and early film. Interactive fiction was developed in the late-20th century through video games. Certain basic elements define all works of narrative , including all works of narrative fiction. Namely, all narratives include

2442-461: The 2nd century AD, but his age was unknown even to Photios , who wrote a synopsis of the romance. The romance was a novel of twenty-four books and was written in the form of a dialogue about travels. It is highly praised by Photios for its vivid narration, its clarity, and the gracefulness of its descriptions. Scholars have tended to take it as a given that Lucian of Samosata had Diogenes' work principally in mind when he wrote his celebrated parody,

2516-554: The Sibyl. She grants them the fulfillment of one request each. Deinias simply wishes to return to his beloved Derkyllis in Tyros, which is granted. Falling asleep—like Ulysses does in Skheria —Deinias wakes up in Tyros, where eventually all are happily reunited. It can be surmised that, at this point, the novel works its way back through one or more of the nested frames and ends. The 24-volume book

2590-604: The audience's willing suspension of disbelief . The effects of experiencing fiction, and the way the audience is changed by the new information they discover, has been studied for centuries. Also, infinite fictional possibilities themselves signal the impossibility of fully knowing reality, provocatively demonstrating philosophical notions, such as there potentially being no criterion to measure constructs of reality. In contrast to fiction, creators of non-fiction assume responsibility for presenting information (and sometimes opinion) based only in historical and factual reality. Despite

2664-415: The audience, including elements such as romance , piracy , and religious ceremonies . Heroic romance was developed in medieval Europe , incorporating elements associated with fantasy , including supernatural elements and chivalry . The structure of the modern novel was developed by Miguel de Cervantes with Don Quixote in the early-17th century. The novel became a primary medium of fiction in

2738-653: The boy of the deepest wisdom of the Egyptians, the Arabs, the Chaldeans, and the Hebrews. Astraios himself had been handed over to Pythagoras , who after a physiognomic test accepted him as a student. Thus ends the report of Astraios—which is Porphyry's citation of Antonius Diogenes about the life of Pythagoras, in which is also reflected what Astraios had heard by a woman named Philotis regarding Pythagoras and his teachings. This detour in

2812-581: The context of the real world. One realistic fiction sub-genre is historical fiction , centered around true major events and time periods in the past. The attempt to make stories feel faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details, and the 19th-century artistic movement that began to vigorously promote this approach, is called literary realism , which incorporates some works of both fiction and non-fiction. Storytelling has existed in all human cultures, and each culture incorporates different elements of truth and fiction into storytelling. Early fiction

2886-442: The elements of character , conflict , narrative mode , plot , setting , and theme . Characters are individuals inside a work of story, conflicts are the tension or problem that drives characters' thoughts and actions, narrative modes are the ways in which a story is communicated, plots are the sequence of events in a story, settings are the story's locations in time and space, and themes are deeper messages or interpretations about

2960-818: The events in A True Story actually occurred, although Lucian was trying to parody untrue accounts of voyages. Fiction Fiction is any creative work , chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals , events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history , fact , or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring specifically to novels , novellas , and short stories . More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium , including not just writings but also live theatrical performances , films , television programs , radio dramas , comics , role-playing games , and video games . Typically,

3034-474: The fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects the work to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the themes and context of a work, such as if and how it relates to real-world issues or events, are open to interpretation . Since fiction

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3108-430: The generic distinction of SF, that is, the depiction of an alternate world, radically unlike our own, but relatable to it in terms of significant knowledge. According to Grewell, whose definition of science fiction focuses on the struggle between supposedly superior and inferior life forms, "part of the tale that qualifies it as science fiction, rather than as fantasy or imaginative fiction, involves Lucian and his seamen in

3182-472: The head of his dragoons. At that time we were beaten, for we were not a match for them in strength, and we retreated. Now, however, I desire to make war again and plant the colony." The typical science fiction themes and topoi that appear in True Stories are: A middle position seems to be taken up by critic Kingsley Amis , who acknowledged the science fiction and satirical character of True Stories at

3256-567: The imperial period. Plasmatic narrative, following entirely invented characters and events, was developed through ancient drama and New Comedy . One common structure among early fiction is a series of strange and fantastic adventures as early writers test the limits of fiction writing. Milesian tales were an early example of fiction writing in Ancient Greece and Italy. As fiction writing developed in Ancient Greece, relatable characters and plausible scenarios were emphasized to better connect with

3330-504: The island, they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to the Moon , where they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between Endymion the king of the Moon and Phaethon the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star . Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms. The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun's light. Both parties come to

3404-436: The journey. On the isle of Samos he entrusted the child to the care of a native citizen named Androcles. Finally Androcles adopted the boy, whom he named Astraios, and raised him along with his biological sons Eunostos, Tyrrhenos, and Pythagoras. Astraios now reports how Androcles had taken up the education of Pythagoras, training him in the lyre, in wrestling, and in painting. Then the philosopher Anaximander of Miletus taught

3478-441: The known physical universe: an independent fictional universe . The creative art of constructing such an imaginary world is known as worldbuilding . Literary critic James Wood argues that "fiction is both artifice and verisimilitude ", meaning that it requires both creative inventions as well as some acceptable degree of believability among its audience, a notion often encapsulated in the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's idea of

3552-632: The lands of the Tyrrhenians and the Cimmerians . There, deep in the land of barbarians and at the edge of the known world, Derkyllis finds the entrance to Hades and meets a deceased servant named Myrto, who teaches her secrets of the Underworld. Returning from Hades, Derkyllis and her companions, Keryllos and Astraios, come by the "grave of the Siren." The story here gets more entangled because it inserts portions of

3626-423: The life of Pythagoras —the ones quoted by Porphyry in his biography of Pythagoras. Astraios explains how, during a journey, Mnesarchus, a stepfather of Pythagoras , noticed the exceptional abilities of the child as he watched him lying under a white poplar, looking at the sun without blinking. The poplar was dripping nourishing dew from a small tube. Endeared with this prodigy child, Mnesarchus took him along for

3700-508: The more the merrier. ... I'm a genre writer of a sort. I write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit". Likewise, on The Charlie Rose Show , he argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. He suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words". Literary fiction often involves social commentary , political criticism , or reflection on

3774-411: The multiple nested levels of narration. The novel begins in an outermost layer where the author introduces a Roman, Faustinus, who travels the world in search of rare books to give to his bibliophile sister Isidora. His latest journey has taken him to Tyros . A corresponding letter of the author follows a dedication to his own sister, also named Isidora. Faustinus discovers a letter whose contents form

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3848-550: The narrative of Derkyllis, she and Mantinias, children of Mnasion, are driven from their home by the schemes of the novel's villain, an Egyptian priest named Paapis. Feigning gratitude to Mnasion's family, who have been his benefactors, Paapis works to steal their wealth. He tricks the children into giving their parents a supposedly benevolent magic formula, which puts them into a deathlike sleep. Believing that they have murdered their parents, Derkyllis and Mantinias flee in grief, first arriving at Rhodes and Crete , then continuing onto

3922-435: The novel is used as a historical source for his Life of Pythagoras , but neither section is very helpful about the plot. The few surviving papyrus fragments of the novel, however, do reveal some aspects of the structure and content. Even though Photios praises the work in high tones, both for its style clarity and its plot credibility, the summary of the content that he presents creates a confusing impression, mainly because of

3996-562: The novel's first frame. It was written by Balagros, a Greek soldier in the Somatophylax Guard of Alexander the Great , to his wife Phila, the eldest daughter of Antipater ; the couple are genuine historical figures incorporated into the novel. Balagros reports that after the conquest of Tyros, Alexander, Hephaistion and Parmenion were shown a hypogeum containing several stone sarcophagi. These were adorned with peculiar inscriptions: Thus,

4070-493: The one hand, that the truth can be presented through imaginary channels and constructions, while, on the other hand, works of the imagination can just as well bring about significant new perspectives on, or conclusions about, truth and reality. All types of fiction invite their audience to explore real ideas, issues, or possibilities using an otherwise imaginary setting or using something similar to reality, though still distinct from it. The umbrella genre of speculative fiction

4144-422: The parents of the two, who, back in Tyros, apparently suffer from a similar condition of living death. Finally the entire team, including the siblings, head back to Tyros. But Deinias, travelling with Karmanes and Meniskos, again finds himself straying from the destination, ending up further north. So these fellows enter the territory of eternal night and finally reach to the Moon, where the three travellers meet with

4218-421: The readers are introduced to the novel's significant characters. Also in the hypogeum was a box of cypress wood, bearing the inscription: "Oh, stranger, who opens this, learn from the miracles." Inside, Alexander and his companions found documents composed by Deinias and Derkyllis, which form the main narrative of the novel. In this narrative, two Greek natives of Arcadia, Deinias and his son Demochares, are off on

4292-480: The ridicule directed against the dizzy genre of pseudohistorical travel narration or is it against the novel's particular religious overtone? And if so, is Lucian criticizing the wider asterism of Pythagorean ideas, or is he in opposition to a particular sect? Klaus Reyhl went to extremes in his dissertation examining the dependency of the True Histories on the Apista , claiming that it is possible to reconstruct

4366-464: The same time: I will merely remark that the sprightliness and sophistication of True History make it read like a joke at the expense of nearly all early-modern science fiction, that written between, say, 1910 and 1940. Modern equivalents, combining science fiction and parody in equal measure, may be found in Voltaire 's Micromégas and the works of Douglas Adams . Some Roman readers believed that

4440-523: The story completed, the existing members of the Derkyllis, Keryllos, and Astraios group arrive in Iberia , first into a city whose inhabitants are blind during daytime, although they can see at night. With the help of a flute, Astraios harms their enemies, the bloodthirsty and stupid Celts , from whom the team flees by changing their horses' colors, escaping to Akytania . Astraios is particularly appreciated because

4514-403: The story recounted in A True Story is about "things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." He justifies the title by arguing that his is the only truthful mythological story ever written, inasmuch as it is the only one that admits that it

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4588-541: The story that its audience is left to discuss and reflect upon. Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, fables , legends , myths , fairy tales , epic and narrative poetry , plays (including operas , musicals , dramas, puppet plays , and various kinds of theatrical dances ). However, fiction may also encompass comic books , and many animated cartoons , stop motions , anime , manga , films , video games , radio programs , television programs ( comedies and dramas ), etc. The Internet has had

4662-448: The study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades. The term is sometimes used such as to equate literary fiction to literature. The accuracy of this is debated. Neal Stephenson has suggested that, while any definition will be simplistic, there is today a general cultural difference between literary and genre fiction. On the one hand literary authors nowadays are frequently supported by patronage, with employment at

4736-557: The subjects of scholarly debate. The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true", and that everything in it is a complete and utter lie. The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles . Blown off course by a storm, they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears, a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysus have traveled to this point, and trees that look like women. Shortly after leaving

4810-402: The tales of Ctesias , Iambulus , and Homer and states that "what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying." Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings. As noted by classicist B.P. Reardon, "above all, it is a parody of literary 'liars' like Homer and Herodotus ". Consequently, Lucian goes on to state that

4884-505: The then ongoing Second World War in a way that presented fascist individuals as humorously irrational and pathetic. Many other villains take direct inspiration from real people while having fictional accents, appearances, backgrounds, names, and so on. Antonius Diogenes Antonius Diogenes ( Ancient Greek : Ἀντώνιος Διογένης ) was the author of an ancient Greek romance entitled The Wonders Beyond Thule (Τὰ ὑπὲρ Θoύλην ἄπιστα Apista huper Thoulen ). Scholars have placed him in

4958-454: The time of the work's creation: Jules Verne 's novel From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1865, but only in 1969 did astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to land on the Moon. Historical fiction places imaginary characters into real historical events. In the 1814 historical novel Waverley , Sir Walter Scott 's fictional character Edward Waverley meets

5032-535: The traditional view that fiction and non-fiction are opposites, some works (particularly in the modern era) blur this boundary, particularly works that fall under certain experimental storytelling genres—including some postmodern fiction , autofiction , or creative nonfiction like non-fiction novels and docudramas —as well as the deliberate literary fraud of falsely marketing fiction as nonfiction. Furthermore, even most works of fiction usually have elements of, or grounding in, truth of some kind, or truth from

5106-555: The tyrant of Leontinoi . In the court of the tyrant they are confronted by Paapis, the Egyptian villain, but Derkyllis, to her delight, also meets her lost brother Mantinias. He has experienced an even more peculiar journey, and tells his sister about his visits to the realms of the Sun and Moon, beyond the edge of the world. This is the section that seems to have been parodied by Lucian in his True History . The reunited siblings flee Paapis, carrying off some of his magic books as well as

5180-570: The waning and waxing of his eyes is thought to correspond to the waning and waxing of the moon. The changes of the moon regulate the change of rule between the local kings. Derkyllis is impressed by the people of Artabrians, whose women go to war while the men stay home and look after the household chores. Somehow the Asturians overtake Keryllos and execute him as a punishment for an old debt. The Derkyllis team then returns to Italy and Sicily. They are captured at Mount Eryx and driven before Ainesidemos,

5254-459: The work, the research is primarily concerned with two interrelated questions. Firstly, concerning the nature of the novel. It is obvious that the teachings of the Pythagoreans play a certain role in the novel - but how was it supposed to be read, in the first place? Is it lightly read, as a mystery novel, as a love story, or even as a trivial travelogue? The idea of it being read as a mystery novel

5328-465: Was closely associated with history and myth . Greek poets such as Homer , Hesiod , and Aesop developed fictional stories that were told first through oral storytelling and then in writing. Prose fiction was developed in Ancient Greece , influenced by the storytelling traditions of Asia and Egypt. Distinctly fictional work was not recognized as separate from historical or mythological stories until

5402-576: Was early represented by Karl Bürger, and lately by Reinhold Merkelbach. Rohde points out several references to the Pythagorean religion, choosing not to interpret the novel exclusively as a mystery book. From this perspective arises yet another question: If the relationship between the True Histories of Lucian and the Wonders beyond Thule is undisputed, what is the nature of the True Histories parody? Is

5476-628: Was very much the general term of science then. Additionally, they point out that A True Story was written in response to another work that also contained science fictional elements, that is Antonius Diogenes ' lost Of the Wonderful Things Beyond Thule , whose protagonist also reached the Moon. The estranging feeling of the story as a defining element of science fiction has also been noted: ... True Stories may properly be regarded as SF because Lucian often achieves that sense of "cognitive estrangement" which Darko Suvin has defined as

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