Fiction is a Hypothesis by the Unconscious
Black Hole Eater by Thuberchs Art is a hypothesis proposed by the unconscious. In the scientific method, a hypothesis is rigorously defined, delimited and tested against reality. Artistic hypotheses are obviously not rigorous, but ambiguous, not delimited, but open to unlimited interpretation, and tested not against reality but against the subconscious hypotheses already held by readers. Fiction falls into an odd little category of its own, because it is not as inarticulate as music, which can speak only in emotions. Fiction can make (or proport to make) a "rational" argument, although the more self-conscious fiction is of its own moral, the more it risks degrading into crude propaganda. If you compare Tolkien's work to some other "fantasy" fiction written in the same era, the difference is clear. Tolkien deliberately eschewed propaganda, or any kind of talking down to his audience. That is why he wrote imaginary history rather than allegory. It's hard the...