Quote:
Originally Posted by davem
If Tolkien follows Primary world 'laws of nature' in having arrows kill a person, should he not also be bound by the same Primary world laws in depicting how they would kill him? We know how men in the heat of battle behave (& Tolkien had seen it first hand) so should he not depict it honestly?
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If we are going to set down that rule, the trouble then becomes deciding to what extent and in what detail he must represent his scene in order for it to be depicted "honestly." Regardless of the author, regardless of the book, there will
always be information left out - and so, according your principle,
every single work of literature is simply a different degree of dishonesty.
But authors have been lying in order to tell the truth for thousands of years, and I see no reason for them to stop now.