Fictional redirects here. For the german band, see Fictional (band)

Fiction (from the Latin fingere, "to form, create") is storytelling of imagined events and stands in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. A large part of the appeal of fiction is its ability to evoke the entire spectrum of human emotions: to distract our minds, to give us hope in times of despair, to make us laugh, or to let us experience empathy without attachment. Fictional works—novels, stories, fables, fairy tales, films, comics, interactive fiction, cartoons, video games, Anime—may be partly based on factual occurrences but always contain some imaginary content. The term is also often used synonymously with literature and more specifically fictional prose. In this sense, fiction refers only to novels or short stories and is often divided into two categories, popular fiction (e.g., science fiction or mystery fiction) and literary fiction (e.g., Victor Hugo or William Faulkner).

Fiction is largely perceived as a form of art and/or entertainment, although not all fiction is necessarily artistic. Fiction may be created for the purpose of educating, such as fictional examples used in school textbooks. Fiction is also frequently instrumentalized by propaganda and advertising. Fiction may be propagated by parents to their children out of tradition (e.g. Santa Claus) or in order to instill certain beliefs and values. Fables with an explicit moral goal are not necessarily targeted at children, however. Fiction may over time blend with factual accounts and develop into mythology. Many atheists perceive religion as no different from any fictional tale, whereas members of religious groups typically explain their beliefs with faith and/or historical figures/events; and claim they are fundamentally different from fictional tales (although they may call other religious views fictional). The sociological school of constructivism argues that every view of reality is fundamentally a construction of the self and that a safe distinction between fact and fiction is impossible, whereas the philosophy of naturalism holds that reality can be approximated and truth can be demonstrated through usefulness, allowing the distinction from fiction.

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Of course, I can only write intelligent fundies in fictional worlds where magic actually exists. Maybe that's their problem.
Malimar (Plasma) Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:19:49 -0000
Of course, I can only write intelligent fundies in fictional worlds where magic actually exists. Maybe that's their problem.
I nominate @WriteRCastle for a Shorty Award in #brand because not enough fictional television writers tweet. http://bit.ly/shorty
sigmalives (Robert Hansen) Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:13:56 -0000
I nominate @WriteRCastle for a Shorty Award in #brand because not enough fictional television writers tweet. http://bit.ly/shorty
What's Your Favorite Fictional Movie Restaurant?: Have you ever been watc Subscribe to Fictional RSS feed