To exist or not to exist

Through no fault of my own I had landed in a paradox. I had just started my life, my fictional life, but at the same time I was in my late sixties or early seventies.

When I entered the mosque, I entered a story, titled A Passage to India and written in 1924 by Edward Morgan Forster. It was his fifth and last novel. I do not know Edward Morgan Forster very well and I do not know how well he knows me. But I do know a little about his writing. In 1927 he wrote Aspects of the Novel. Two chapters, III and IV, are devoted to characters.

Mr. Forster distinguishes between characters in life and characters in fiction. The main facts for real people in real life, he says, are birth, food, sleep, love and death, but the main fact for fictional people, people in novels, is their preoccupation with human relationships.

I think it depends upon one's point of view. From my point of view, the fictional point of view, the main facts of my life, too, are the physiological facts: birth, food, sleep, love (I think Mr. Forster means sex, but finds it too explicit to write down) and death. Naturally, human relationships, including love, are important as well, but I think it is Mr. Forster who his preoccupied with them, not me.

Mr. Forster also distinguishes between 'flat' characters and 'round' characters. This distinction is often quoted in literary theories. Flat characters are types or caricatures. They are constructed round a single quality. Round characters are, well, not flat. They have more qualities (the more qualities, the rounder they are). The flattest character can be expressed in one sentence. A round character is capable of surprising you in a convincing way, Mr. Forster says.

I think that flat characters and round characters are not just Aspects of the Novel, they are aspects of real life as well. In real life too there are people whose character can be expressed in one sentence. And people you can tell whole stories about.

(Meanwhile I do hope I am surprising you in a convincing way).

Further, Mr. Forster says that all characters, real and fictional, have a 'hidden life', a life of dreams and passions, joys and sorrows. The novelist makes visible the hidden life of his or her characters, while the hidden lives of real people remain invisible, as there is no one to spill the beans.

True. But I think there is only one difference between characters in real life and characters in fiction: characters in real life exist and characters in fiction don't. There is no difference in flatness or roundness, nor in what counts as main facts of life. There is just one aspect that makes a difference: to exist or not to exist.