The Best of Science Fiction 12

In being aware of the bodily experience, we must thereby be aware of aspects of the whole spatio-temporal world as mirrored within the bodily life ... my theory involves the entire abandonment of the notion that simple location is the primary way in which things are involved in space-time.

(A.N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World)

... The subjective reality of fiction depends, not on the spacio-temporal coordinates assigned to it, but on the author's direct or indirect experience of reality, on his frames of reference for the interpretation of reality, on his ability to abstract and synthesise fictional experiences, and on his selection of symbolic media capable of evoking these experiences completely for his readers.

(Reginald Bretnor, Modern Science Fiction)

In his B.B.C. interview, Ballard spoke of the distinction between 'manifest' and 'latent' reality, and the necessity for portraying three distinct aspects of reality in fiction: the objective physical level, the subjective level of consciousness and perception, and the public-image level of other people's perceptions. Too often, he pointed out, we dismiss as 'fictional' many elements of our environment which have attained projective reality in spite of their fictional origins. The fact is, a television spectacle is as real a part of one's experience as a walk down the street; nor does the memory of a hallucination differ intrinsically from the memory of a fireworks display.