[lit-ideas] Re: "the space of reasons" from Morc Huck Pump

WO: Novels do have arguments in them, but they don't *present* arguments. Certain events depicted in a story, certain characters described, may express features to which we assign epistemic warrant, and we then draw conclusions on the grounds of such assignment. But novelists are tricky; in the absence of an explicit presentation of an argument, we cannot but remain uncertain where the author actually stands on the issues, events, descriptions being offered.
EY: Martin Amis _Time's Arrow_ offers an explicit argument in its title and in its narrative structure.
Alternately, most novelists aren't "tricky" just to be tricky. Explicitly-arguing novelists like Tolstoy aside, the point of "remaining uncertain about the author's stand" is to draw the reader into "assigning."
Some novelists -- like Ford in _The Good Soldier_ -- deliberately set out to show that our "assigning" is tentative and fluid, and showcase that for us in a rational argument by way of narrative structure. 

Eric
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