iter
can invest it with tangibility and concreteness in a degree higher than
is attainable by the writer who deals with fantasies and dreams. The
measure of verisimilitude attainable by any story is limited by its
content. If it deals with fine-spun fancies, it cannot attain the hearty
solidity of the story that deals with the matter of fact. No writer can
do more than precipitate his conception in his words; if the conception
itself is essentially airy and impalpable, so must the story be airy and
impalpable. In fact, the perfect fictional illusion is that which most
nearly produces on a reader the exact impression the matter would
produce if actually experienced. If a story is strictly unbelievable--of
course any story is conceivable, or it would not have been written--the
writer can do no more than create an illusion of fictional verity, not
of literal verity. That is, a reader will accept the author's basic
assumptions and the whole story as well, if it is developed logically
from the assumptions. Any fairy tale is an instance of what is meant.

I will mention briefly one other consequence of the aim and necessity
that fiction interest. Usually the story, or fiction embodying a plot,
will interest more deeply than the mere tale. Therefore the writer of
fiction usually will choose to write stories rather than tales. The bare
fact is that the highest type of fiction, the fiction of greatest power
over a reader through its human significance, is adequately plotted
simply because it does show real people meeting a real problem of life.

At this point becomes apparent how much that grossly abused word "plot"
stands for. Broadly, a plot is a dramatic problem, and a dramatic
problem results from the opposition of man and man, the opposition of
man and nature, or conflict within a single man. The element of mere
complication is not essential to a plot, not being essential to a
dramatic problem. "Dramatic situation" is perhaps a better term than
"plot," for it has none of the associations of complication that cling
to the latter. Even "dramatic situation" is objectionable, because it
has connotations of the state, and suggests an acuteness and tensity, a
general brevity and pitch of struggle that is not essential to fiction.
"Robinson Crusoe," for instance, though not very tense, is adequately
plotted; it shows man's struggle for bread, shelter, and raiment. "Don
Quixote" is adequately plotted; it shows man in the grip of a