As far as the world is
concerned, we find that the laws of universal gravitation are those established
by Newton, or that it is true that Napoleon died on Saint Helena on 5 May 1821.
And yet, if we keep an open mind, we will always be prepared to revise our
convictions the day science formulates the great laws of the cosmos
differently, or a historian discovers unpublished documents proving that
Napoleon died on a Bonapartist ship as he attempted to escape. On the other
hand, as far as the world of books is concerned, propositions like “Sherlock
Holmes was a bachelor,” “Little Red Riding-Hood is eaten by the wolf and then
freed by the woodcutter,” or “Anna Karenina commits suicide” will remain true
for eternity, and no one will ever be able to refute them. There are people who
deny that Jesus was the son of God, others who doubt his historical existence,
others who claim he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and still others who
believe that the Messiah is yet to come, and however we might think about such
questions, we treat these opinions with respect. But there is little respect
for those who claim that Hamlet married Ophelia, or that Superman is not Clark
Kent.
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