It could be argued that, while you're staring at a piece of paper covered with text printed with ink and categorized as 'fiction', you're enjoying that as a lan

It could be argued that, while you're staring at a piece of paper covered with text printed with ink and categorized as 'fiction', you're enjoying that as a landscape peopled with imaginary characters. Some of which you might be drawn quite close to, say, Sherlock Holmes. The same argument applies to orally-transmitted folklore (and notable story-tellers, before printing came along). Certainly the exercise of imagination enhances such widely-admired and long-remembered works. The exercise of the powers of imagination is responsible for most of the great ideas of humanity. Indeed without it, "We would own no more, know no more, and be no more than the first apelike hominids..." -- R.A.W.