I called it "the Paradox of Fiction" when I first explained to someone why I hated a particular fictional character.

I looked it up, and I found out that there was a paradox by the same name. If I was supposed to read in between the lines, which I did think of while reading about the Paradox of Fiction that Wikipedia lists, I just didn't think that was the case because it was talking about if you believed that fictional events actually happened while having a strong emotional reaction to them. I have strong emotional reactions to several fictional happenings, but I KNOW that I simultaneously do not believe fictional things have happened, in real life, outside our minds.

The paradox I thought about was not about  believability of fiction, but certainty of it. I'm about to explain what I mean, because I know that sounds confusing... In real life, such as it is, there are unknowns all around. Are we dreaming/drugged/put in a pre-birth spiritual state right now? Which conspiracy hypotheses are true? Who, de facto, are the powers that be, rather than who they appear to be, before we can even begin to question how they screw us over? Is this a hallucination? Consult with both the Mandela effect and false memories on the individual level. If you consider all of this, you'll realize we don't know what is going on. In fiction, on the other hand, it's just THERE. Even in unreliable narration, you can keep re-reading, re-listening, or re-watching to get an idea about what happened in order to avoid being betrayed by false memories, but real life forces you to embrace a degree of uncertainty.

So, the paradox I thought of is, while "real life," so to speak, is what actually happens, we know more about fictional worlds than the world outside our minds. We know fiction did not happen - outside our minds - but we know what happened, whereas in real life we have to operate on best guesses.

I’ve read your post several times and I am still not quite sure I get what you are talking about.

I think you are saying that we know fiction is made up, but we don’t know that our lives as we are experiencing them are not made up.

To that (plus all the stuff about conspiracy theories and who is really ruling the world (though I am not sure why you think there is someone else doing it)) I say don’t worry about it, just live your life to the best of your abilities. Overthinking things is bad for your health - get out there and enjoy it.

I’ve read your post several times and I am still not quite sure I get what you are talking about.

I think you are saying that we know fiction is made up, but we don’t know that our lives as we are experiencing them are not made up.

To that (plus all the stuff about conspiracy theories and who is really ruling the world (though I am not sure why you think there is someone else doing it)) I say don’t worry about it, just live your life to the best of your abilities. Overthinking things is bad for your health - get out there and enjoy it.


I think you're reading hysteria in my post when it isn't there.

I only mentioned conspiracy hypotheses because it's part of the paradox: in short, we know what it is that happens in fiction, but we don't know what happens in real life... Despite fiction being separate from real life, we know more about it than we do real life.

That's the jist of it.

I only ask this because if I'm the first to stumble upon this, I wonder if I can get a college grant based on that.

I think you're reading hysteria in my post when it isn't there.

I only mentioned conspiracy hypotheses because it's part of the paradox: in short, we know what it is that happens in fiction, but we don't know what happens in real life... Despite fiction being separate from real life, we know more about it than we do real life.

That's the jist of it.


Fiction isn't as concrete as you think. Somebody made it up, so anything could have happened. It could have ended any number of different ways than it did. It's not bound by reality. Just like movies (also fiction) that shoot two or three different endings and then pick one, sometimes depending on what audience focus groups think. Just because you don't see (or read) these myriad of alternate endings doesn't mean they don't exist. Heck, you could re-write it yourself if you wanted. You could re-write "Romeo and Juliet" so that they don't die. But if somebody dies in real life they stay dead.

Fiction isn't as concrete as you think. Somebody made it up, so anything could have happened. It could have ended any number of different ways than it did. It's not bound by reality. Just like movies (also fiction) that shoot two or three different endings and then pick one, sometimes depending on what audience focus groups think. Just because you don't see (or read) these myriad of alternate endings doesn't mean they don't exist. Heck, you could re-write it yourself if you wanted. You could re-write "Romeo and Juliet" so that they don't die. But if somebody dies in real life they stay dead.


You'd still know what the ending was for each. On the other hand, there's a possibility, even if it's slim, that this reality we live in is simulated.

I’ve read your post several times and I am still not quite sure I get what you are talking about.

I think you are saying that we know fiction is made up, but we don’t know that our lives as we are experiencing them are not made up.


I think you did get my paradox, though. I think you understood what I was saying when explaining the paradox.

Sorry if I was harsh when letting you know I wasn't worried, because I didn't want to be harsh.

I think you did get my paradox, though. I think you understood what I was saying when explaining the paradox.

Sorry if I was harsh when letting you know I wasn't worried, because I didn't want to be harsh.


No worries. Thanks for the explanation. In another post you mentioned getting a research grant. How would you prove (or disprove) whether our lives are someone else’s fiction? I think that is what you would need to consider before applying for grant money.

I just sometimes see posts from younger members on here and I worry that they are overthinking life instead of trying to live it.

No worries. Thanks for the explanation. In another post you mentioned getting a research grant. How would you prove (or disprove) whether our lives are someone else’s fiction? I think that is what you would need to consider before applying for grant money.

I just sometimes see posts from younger members on here and I worry that they are overthinking life instead of trying to live it.


Well actually my thought on this is that the puzzle is unsolvable, since after someone were to attempt to prove our lives were just as they seemed, it could just backfire on them instantly if they suddenly incarnate/ awaken/ get led to evidence that, actually, there was some grand conspiracy going on after all.

What led me to think this may have given me a scholarship/grant in spite of this is that this one psychologist told me that coming up with a definition of consciousness could give me financial aid for having a scientifically-oriented mind.

I came up with a definition within minutes, but I've never shared it because I don't know whether to actually believe that there's a scholarship for that.

Well actually my thought on this is that the puzzle is unsolvable, since after someone were to attempt to prove our lives were just as they seemed, it could just backfire on them instantly if they suddenly incarnate/ awaken/ get led to evidence that, actually, there was some grand conspiracy going on after all.

What led me to think this may have given me a scholarship/grant in spite of this is that this one psychologist told me that coming up with a definition of consciousness could give me financial aid for having a scientifically-oriented mind.

I came up with a definition within minutes, but I've never shared it because I don't know whether to actually believe that there's a scholarship for that.


Although I can't completely agree with your theory because I maintain that fiction is not as concrete as you think, so it therefore cannot be more real than real life,  I say go for it as far as trying to obtain the scholarship. You might get it. Stranger things have happened. It shows you think outside the box, as the cliche goes.

If fiction was set in stone people wouldn't be altering great and classic works like "Huck Finn" because of the use of certain words and scenarios which offend today's delicate snowflake sensibilities.  Not to mention works written in any given language get translated into other languages, where things "get lost in translation". Not to mention books that become movies where they REALLY mess with the plot. Etc, etc. Or think of all the movies and other adaptions of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", each one different than the other, and very few faithful to the original book. Which one is "real"? If you ask me, being the purist that I am, the book is real. But do you know how many people have seen on or the other of the millions of movies that have been made of it and think THAT is the last word on it? So not only is fiction not concrete because it's changeable, people's inaccurate perceptions of it are even LESS concrete.

But I digress. I say go for the scholarship.