Yann Martel begins his 2001 novel Life of Pi with an Author's Note, in which an author character reveals what led him to Pi Patel and offers many ideas about writing. The author character writes that he had planned to work on his second novel in India, and "Thus set up, pen in hand, for the sake of greater truth, I would turn Portugal into a fiction. That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence" (Martel VIII).
Based on our seminar discussion of the short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," and on your understanding of the Author's Note, please comment on this quotation from Life of Pi. Cite a specific example from your own reading experiences that either proves or disproves the idea that fiction is a "selective transforming of reality."
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