Facts in Fiction
Whenever we think of the word ‘fiction’, we instantly relate it to the imagination. It exists only in our minds — a conjured up world that you would never see in real life. And when we think of the word ‘fact’, we instantly relate it to truth. However, people seem to fail to acknowledge that facts are present within fiction, and fiction may stem from factual information.
When we go about our daily lives, we experience the things life throws at us and these experiences could be the root of a fictional story, a game, or even a movie. For example, you may know the greatest love story between two people you’re close with, which could spark the start of a novel based on this love story.
There are films such as The Imitation Game, which is based on the story of Alan Turing — a computer scientist who was tasked to crack an enigma code used by the Nazis; the film 300, which informs watchers of the true story of Leonidas and his group of 300 men who fought against the Persians; the film Into the Wild — a true story about a man’s spiritual journey; the movie Escape from Alcatraz — a story based on an island¹. All of these movies are examples of how facts and reality are utilised within fiction, or transformed into fiction.
Using facts when writing fiction is important, especially when you’re basing whatever you want to write on something real, or if you want to include aspects of reality within your writing— like a place. You would want to make sure, for example, that if your novel is set in a certain country, that information about places within that country are correct. Writers of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Historical fiction and other genres that might involve research would also have to ensure that the information they include in their story are correct — they would have to do some research depending on what they want to write, otherwise there will be readers ready to criticise the work produced for giving false information. I, for one, have gone through this. I mostly write fantasy, and when I was writing about Japanese deities, I had to thoroughly research each one and find out how these gods and goddesses came to be known.
Examples of facts in fiction can be seen in any fictional story, ranging from shows and films. I find it especially amusing when I find real places and brands in anime with different names to avoid copyright — they almost seem like parodies.
Likewise, real places are replicated within anime too, as well as animated films.
Although the first image from the two above is concept art, both these images are taken from the animated movie Big Hero 6, which fuses San Francisco and Tokyo together to create the fictional city ‘San Fransokyo’. Even though these cities differ in terms of culture, the creator of the movie took inspiration from these two places in order to create a fictional world that worked and succeeded.
Probably the most famous fictional world is that of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. The school is apparently located in the Scottish Highlands, and according to research, Rowling based Hogwarts on her school Wyedean with many of the staff being replicated in the series; the inspiration for Snape was Rowling’s own Chemistry teacher³. This once again reiterates the idea that stories could be given life based on real places and real people.
There are also other series that incorporate the real world within the fictional world. One of my favourite series, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness (CAD), is an example of this. CAD is a historical fantasy novel by Michelle Paver and is set during prehistoric Europe and the Stone Age. Therefore, she had to undergo research in order to understand the history 6000 years ago.
“In addition to academic study, she travelled to north-eastern Finland, where she trekked with a field guide over 300 miles across the forests.”⁴
In addition, Paver also “used tools and clothing that would have been available 6000 years ago, slept in a traditional laavu shelter in a sleeping bag made of reindeer skin, and ate only foods that Stone-Age hunter-gatherers would have” in order to better understand their world. And since the series includes wolves, Paver studied and observed them at a wolf reserve. Due to her thorough research, she gained praises from archaeological circles⁵.
Facts are present in fiction whether the reader realises it or not and implementing facts and real life stories, as well as real life experiences, within fiction makes it all the more authentic. In other words, both fact and fiction are connected, and although books are fictional, they somehow contain an essence of reality that we might not notice.
References:
(1) Matiejunaite, Ieva. ‘The 15 Best Movies Based on True Stories’. Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/the-15-best-movies-based-on-true-stories/
(2) Harano, Sakura. ‘Anime Scenery That Resembles Real Life Places’. Oh! Press. https://blog.onehallyu.com/espressoh-anime-scenery-that-resembles-real-life-places/
(3) Jordan, Claire. ‘What did JK Rowling base Hogwarts on?’ Quora. https://www.quora.com/What-did-JK-Rowling-base-Hogwarts-on
(4–5) ‘Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_Ancient_Darkness#Research
