Explanations

No, no!  The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.

~ Lewis Carroll

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I hadn't thought before about this, but what is the difference between stories and explanations?  I feel sure there is a difference.  Explanations are often not any more true than stories.  Explanations might be presented as "facts," but that doesn't make them factual.   Or true.

 

Oh, but then the subject of truth is...  subjective.  Right?

 

Are all versions of truth and are all explanations stories?

 

(pause)  Give me a moment.  I'm thinking.

 

(another, sightly longer pause)

 

Maybe yes (she wrote with conviction!).  Maybe explanations are just stories that are not as gripping as explanations we don't call explanations, but we call stories.

 

I would go to a storytelling festival, but not an explanation-giving festival.

 

No, wait.  That's a lie.  I like festivals.  I'd be tempted to go check out an explanation-giving festival.  I bet they'd have a vendor selling big floppy hats and also a lot of fried food.  I bet I could tell a pretty good story after visiting an explanation-giving festival.