Does fiction lie, or tell truth through lies?

When I was a kid, writing and telling stories and dreaming of being a famous author one day, my brother told me girls could only be author-ess-es. The word was too hard to say. I decided he was wrong.

One day I showed him one of my written stories, instead of just telling my curious tale out loud. He wasn't impressed. He told me fiction is lying, and lying is sin. But fiction was so much a part of me, I had to believe my brother was wrong again.

He's now a retired teacher of history and politic...