We make the stories what we will. It is a way of explaining the universe while leaving the universe unexplained, it is a way of keeping it all alive, not boxing it into time. Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say that there are true things to be found, some people say all kind of things can be proved. I don’t believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It’s all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is to admire the cat’s cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more. History should be a hammock for swinging and a game for playing, the way cats play. Claw it, chew it, rearrange it and at bedtime it is still a ball of string full of knots. Nobody should mind. Some people make a lot of money out of it. Publishers do well; children when bright can come top. It’s an all-purpose rainy day pursuit, this reducing of stories called history.
Oranges are not the only fruit
Jeanette Winterson