Fiction has always been malleable, a two-way conversation between the storyteller and the reader/listener/viewer. Fiction is older than novels, and will outlive

Fiction has always been malleable, a two-way conversation between the storyteller and the reader/listener/viewer. Fiction is older than novels, and will outlive the strangely modern idea that there exists a definitive canon dictated by the all-knowing author. For the vast majority of human history, fiction was transmitted by word of mouth, performances, rituals, and countless retellings in which each storyteller could add their own flourishes. There were many versions of the same story that often conflicted with one another, and people were okay with that. Even stories that were written down were often modified as they were copied by hand, translated, and re-copied over the centuries. Moreover, it is no secret that many authors struggle to choose between alternate endings to their own masterpieces, and often change their minds after their work is published. That's how we get revised editions with new scenes, changed scenes, and sometimes even radically different endings. Every fictional world is a spectrum of possible worlds with vague boundaries. The author gets to write about one of them, usually only one of them. The rest is left to the reader's imagination, and this broad space for reinterpretation is exactly what makes literature so interesting.