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ARISTOTLE_POSSIBILITIES

                                                      ARISTOTLE_POETICS

From Section IX:

   "... it is not the function of the poet to relate what
   has happened, but what may happen, -- what is possible
   according to the law of probability or necessity The poet
   and the historian differ not by writing in verse or in
   prose. The work of Herodotus might be put into verse, and
   it would still be a species of history, with metre no
   less than without it. The true difference is that one
   relates what has happened, the other what may
   happen. Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a
   higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express
   the universal, history the particular."

Or, breaking that down into in smaller bits:

   "... it is not the function of the poet to relate
   what has happened, but what may happen"


   "what is possible according to the law of
   probability or necessity"

   "The poet and the historian differ not by
   writing in verse or in prose."


   "Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a       Fiction may be
   higher thing than history: for poetry tends to          "higher", but
   express the universal, history the particular."         history is more
                                                           primal, more
                                                           fundamental...


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