Can you tell the difference between reality and fiction? Or maybe you can't tell the difference between reality and fiction?

[Misako]

Can you tell the difference between reality and fiction? Or maybe you can't tell the difference between reality and fiction? You know, a work of fiction is just an imagination of a writer, imagination is needed to process the development of thought patterns, create something, realize it into what he wants, for example, a writer wants to make a novel with super strong characters that can destroy the universe, that is. is an imagination of the writer, and yes, it is a story, fiction and imagination, not a reality, but if the one who reads the novel there is an idiot who can't tell the difference between reality and fiction, what will happen? of course it will be blasphemed endlessly, the blasphemy will pit the author's fiction with things related to the real world, for example an idiot reader comments: "He is too unreasonable, how can he destroy the universe, albert Einstein said blah blah blah", yes, we know, idiot readers will not be able to understand what the word "FICTION" is and will continue to judge this and that based on the real world, and the question is, are you one of those idiot readers?

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Reality is one big illusion.

 

[lnv]

Can you tell the difference between reality and fiction? Or maybe you can't tell the difference between reality and fiction? You know, a work of fiction is just an imagination of a writer, imagination is needed to process the development of thought patterns, create something, realize it into what he wants, for example, a writer wants to make a novel with super strong characters that can destroy the universe, that is. is an imagination of the writer, and yes, it is a story, fiction and imagination, not a reality, but if the one who reads the novel there is an idiot who can't tell the difference between reality and fiction, what will happen? of course it will be blasphemed endlessly, the blasphemy will pit the author's fiction with things related to the real world, for example an idiot reader comments: "He is too unreasonable, how can he destroy the universe, albert Einstein said blah blah blah", yes, we know, idiot readers will not be able to understand what the word "FICTION" is and will continue to judge this and that based on the real world, and the question is, are you one of those idiot readers?

Whether it be reality or fiction, there are some indisputable facts that remain consistent, such as cats being the supreme beings the govern all time and space and everything.

That aside, as far as fiction is concerned, it all boils down to what exactly the author is writing. If the author copies 99.999% concepts of our reality then pulls something out of thin air which is unreasonable, yeah... even in fiction, the thought process should be consistent to the rules the authors lays out. Well I say should, but technically no one is forcing the author. They can technically do whatever, but I guess that sets the difference between trash works and decent works.

Though I will say that often times, when people read too much novels, sometimes they do end up confusing reality with novels. So I have seen many cases of people labeling real life actions as unrealistic since they got too used to how things are in novels.

Anyways, point being is you can't cover up lazy writing simply by calling it fiction. Even fiction has to follow some sort of rules even if those rules do not fully match our own. But again, that is if you care for quality. Many multi-billion franchises from marvel/dc to harry potter just pull things out of their ass and ignore their own rules all the time. But hey, whatever sells right?

PS since you are asking readers, shouldn't this be in Reader's general, not author's general?

Reality is one big illusion.

Reality is one giant math equation.

 

[Arkus86]

Using your example, if the author creates a universe where universe destroying powers are known to be possible, great example being Chinese cultivation novels, the reader only has themselves to blame if they don't like it.
But if the author writes in present day Earth, no magic, no cultivation, and then suddenly pulls a universe destroying power out of nowhere, unless it's a slapstick comedy or some such, calling it a fiction is just a poor way of excusing bad writing.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Talk to a psychiatrist if you are having difficulty making the distinction.

 

[SakeVision]

IT will be blasphemed over and over again, but the ultimate blasphemer is not the reader; no, lo, behold!
The blasphemer is you!

Look, how you interrupt your stream of consciousness! How you edit a story over and over again, rearranging its contents to be a better BAIT, to stimulate or manipulate emotional reactions in the reader, to become a lie, divorced from whatever truth gave rise to the STORY in your heart!

Behold, how you change the contents of your story to pander to what you think is your target audience! How you censor your story, afraid to offend other people's sensibilities! How fear suffocates you and kills the creative spark within you!

You are the blasphemer, and your guilt is superior!

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Whether it be reality or fiction, there are some indisputable facts that remain consistent, such as cats being the supreme beings the govern all time and space and everything.

That aside, as far as fiction is concerned, it all boils down to what exactly the author is writing. If the author copies 99.999% concepts of our reality then pulls something out of thin air which is unreasonable, yeah... even in fiction, the thought process should be consistent to the rules the authors lays out. Well I say should, but technically no one is forcing the author. They can technically do whatever, but I guess that sets the difference between trash works and decent works.

Though I will say that often times, when people read too much novels, sometimes they do end up confusing reality with novels. So I have seen many cases of people labeling real life actions as unrealistic since they got too used to how things are in novels.

Anyways, point being is you can't cover up lazy writing simply by calling it fiction. Even fiction has to follow some sort of rules even if those rules do not fully match our own. But again, that is if you care for quality. Many multi-billion franchises from marvel/dc to harry potter just pull things out of their ass and ignore their own rules all the time. But hey, whatever sells right?

PS since you are asking readers, shouldn't this be in Reader's general, not author's general?

Reality is one giant math equation.

Reality will be whatever I want

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Damn, you probably got really angry after seeing all those replies in your first thread.

 

[Southdog]

This isn't solipsist amateur hour, go touch grass.

 

[Minx]

Are you sure the reality that you see is the REAL reality? That is the real question.

 

[Psycholor]

Damn, you probably got really angry after seeing all those replies in your first thread.

This was my thought upon seeing this lmao.

For those who missed it

 

[AliceShiki]

As someone who fell in love twice with people that I entered RP relationships with (both of which did end up leading to LDRs though)... I think I'm very bad at separating reality from fiction tbh. It's far too easy to mix both up when there are other people involved~

But if you mean separating reality from a story I read in a book? Well... Suspension of disbelief only works to some extent. The more absurd your story is, the less likely it will be for me to enjoy it, because I can't completely ignore reality while reading a book~

Like, if you try making a medi-fantasy novel and start making a buttload of historical inaccuracies with how you depict the setting, I'll get annoyed regardless of the "fantasy" part of "medi-fantasy"~

 

[Nautiphilic]

"ARE YOU A MAN DREAMING U ARE A BUTTERFLY, OR A BUTTERFLY NOW DREAMING U ARE A MAN?" ?​

 

[BearlyAlive]

The truth is a lie. As is the cake.

Maybe we are the ones that aren't real? Maybe we're all just NPCs in an MMO that got sentinent by mistake and now try to fight against being deleted? No, wait, that's the sh*tty plot twist of SO3... Another good franchise that got destroyed and never got any good again...

 

[PeacefulMyst]

"When you stop being able to differentiate between reality and fiction"
Hate when that happens.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Fiction and non-fiction writing doesn’t always have a well defined line between them. There was a popular trend with books written by WWII veterans to take the authors own experiences with the war, and instead of writing an autobiography change names and events slightly to make it more narratively cohesive. The most popular example is probably From the City, From the Plough (one of the best wwii books imo). My great grandfather wrote one of these types of stories as well, though I’m hesitant to say it’s name for sake of my privacy.

 

[Shomin]

I do feel that the topic owner is trying to express their frustration towards readers who provided them an unhelpful feedbacks.
Yes, stories are simply imagination. Somehow, we added some elements from reality to make it closer to the readers.
Some stories are pure "High fantasy" and highly artistic. Thus, if that reader unable to decipher the work, then that person is not the right kind of audience to begin with. Thus, no point to argue about who's right and who's wrong.

 

[CubicleHermit]

Unless it's intentional mind-screw stuff, fiction has to make sense.

Real life doesn't, and if you cherry pick the weird parts, there are a lot of things in real life that we'd dismiss as coincidence. Even more true when you consider that looking back on history you have a lot of survivorship bias and the stories that get told/recorded are often the ones that fit in with an understandable narrative.

 

[2021]

I mix the words up, but I’m not insane.

 

[MorgueAnna]

Suspension of disbelief is a concept you may want to look into. While fiction is fiction and can go beyond the limitations of our reality, if the fiction is inconsistent with its own rules it can take a reader out of the appropriate headspace for engaging with the story. Of course, I suspect that everyone has different degrees of limitation for their own suspension of disbelief. For example, there are a great deal of fans of the anime Sword Art Online, but I couldn't make it a full episode without it breaking my suspension of disbelief. I've tried watching it a couple times, but have never made it past episode 3 because I get so distracted by nitpick-y issues, even when I try to turn my brain off.
I have seen the tendency in younger and/or inexperienced folks to confuse what people enjoy in fiction as something that person would enjoy in reality, and then condemning them as immoral, which is absolutely baffling. One hopes they grow out of that tendency as they experience life.
Sadly there are also pedantic individuals who enjoy publicly decrying even the most minute issues, but they tend to be a vocal minority who should be ignored until they (hopefully) grow out of it.