mf

Hmm, I'm not sure that I think there is 'a point' to fairy tales. Yes, they are full of information about the world, but they weren't constructed by one dude trying to construct a life manual. But they did get built over time by different people adding in whatever bits seemed right, and maybe a lot of those people did experience the world as arbitrary in some way, so that's what they put in, although not consciously. Probably that's basically what you're saying, actually, and I'm just focusing on the wrong aspect of your discussion.

I agree with you about the appeal of the universal narrative. I'm kind of obstinate about the physical existence of a single narrative in the world - yeah, people might experience things differently because of their history and emotions and whatever, and yeah, people might remember things differently. But things that happened happened. Whereas, yeah, in detective stories at least everyone can remember the same stuff. And once the truth is revealed, they all agree that it's the truth. If only real people were like that. Real people are the worst.