While discussing Pride & Prejudice recently, one of my professors got out a dry-erase marker and drew a crooked, green T-graph on the board. She labeled one side Homo Sapien, and the other Homo Fictus. Then made a point about the way humans live in reality, and the way we portray ourselves in story. The...

Two weeks ago I stood in line at midnight to see the latest Twilight Saga release, Eclipse. In line were an array of angtsy teenagers, swooning college students, and obsessed housewives. Behind me, two thirty-somethings casually debated the sex appeal of the film’s dueling heartthrobs: Edward, a 104...