A Great Novel Is Credible if the Characters Seem Real

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A great novel is data. It's like you say, you learn something about the world. But if the person isn't realistic, doesn't strike you as credible, then you don't take it seriously. If they do, then you can immerse yourself in it, and then it can be a source of une standing for you. I want to close with a something i just realized, which is this quote i've had earlier, that you have as well, that y i put it together. Human beings are pattern seeking, story telling animals. And the technology has liberated the human spirit. Wen waps rhapsod wax rhapsodical for a minute, perhaps inappropriately,

Once it was The Shadow radio show; now it's the podcast Serial. Is every old storytelling medium new again? Frank Rose, author of The Sea We Swim In, concedes that some things remain sacred--from the power of a great hook to the hope that great stories never end. But he also thinks the Internet has led to new kinds of stories, ones that are not just entertaining, but immersive, and whose worlds are more richly imaginative than ever--even as they leave increasingly little to our imagination.