Fact and Fiction

Abstract

What we have not yet considered is whether Huxley’s references to science are factually accurate or, if inaccurate, how important this might be. I would like at this point to come up with some basic guidelines that might be applied to any study of scientific references in literary fiction. To do so, it will first be necessary to turn to the relation between fact and fiction and the criteria used to distinguish literary and scientific texts. Instead of halting at the recognition of a literary reference’s scientific nature, as other critics do, I would like to examine more closely the ontological status of scientific facts in literary fiction and, in the process, clarify the relation between literature and science. Huxley, I believe, was correct when he observed that ‘the problem of the right relationship between literature and science presents itself even when a poet’s references to scientific facts and theories are of the most casual nature’ (Literature 43). Taking Huxley’s own references as a basis, I will explore this shifting and multilateral relationship. My discussion will streamline complex philosophical debates to get at what is relevant for consideration of scientific fact in literary fiction. It is my contention that statements in a literary fiction can indeed be judged according to their factual accuracy and that this type of judgement may in certain contexts be significant. So it is important to establish when and what type of inaccuracies occur.