The Quest for Truth- a fairy story

I was inspired to begin writing this one wet and windy weekend following a conversation on Facebook. This has turned into an homage to research terminology and makes no claim to be a robust academic piece of work. There may also be an influence from TerryPratchett , The Brothers Grimm and Enid Blyton.

 With acknowledgments to Ashley Bilen for the inspiration and Villan’s name (yet to be introduced) and for Snowball and Bronnie Thompson for the three step-sisters.

Chapter 1

A long, long time ago in a land far, far away  there was a kingdom called Probability where anything could, and certainly did happen.

Probability was ruled by the A’Tives, the throne being currently occupied by twin Kings Quantit and Qualit. They had accessed the throne rather suddenly as their father had died during the recent Plaigiarism plague that swept through the land taking people’s livelihoods. Two such different characters one would be very hard pushed to find. King Quantit rarely interacted with his subjects, preferring to observe his kingdom through a one way mirror and issue decrees and laws by the hatful. His twin brother Qualit however liked nothing more than moving around the kingdom as discretely as possible in order the interact with and observe his subjects and thus have an understanding of his people in a more socially constructed view.

The two brothers would argue constantly that their way was the best way until one day they decided to hold a contest to prove finally which was the best method of ruling– and the winner would take sole control of the kingdom.

Of course, being Kings they had no intention in taking part in the contest themselves – oh no that would not do! So a decree was issued, a contest planned and notices were sent far and wide throughout the kingdom to all corners of Probability to find a champion for each King.

NOTICE:

The Quest for Truth:

We seek two champions to engage in a Triangulation contest.

One of you will be logical and rational the other will be symbolic and perceptive. Both of you will be expected to engage in a combination of MULTI-MODAL tasks in order to seek truth.

Whichever of you wins will receive riches beyond compare (once it has been established the baseline for comparison!)

Please contact palace for further details

Chapter 2

In another corner of Probability lived Validity Izabilty. Validity  lived in a tiny village called Construct which was not directly observable to  humans, but which nestled cosily between the twin volcanoes of Abstract and  Chaos. She was a sensible girl and took care to ensure that her decisions and expectations of others was well considered and balanced.

Life was never dull in the household that she shared with her father, the General  (who liked nothing more than applying his rules not just to his own household, but to the population at large) and her three  step-sisters Mean, Mode and Median.

Mean, who was not necessarily a nasty girl- just a bit misunderstood,  was of average height and build and was interested in the value of everything, Mode was a rather common girl who followed the crowd and Median was the middle sister.

A dog called Snowball rounded off the family group. A bundle of fluff who was not really representative of all dogs but was simple and cheap and could see invisible things and therefore helped Validity to link with the rest of his friends.

One day as she was sauntering through the neighbourhood , being sensible, with Snowball at her heel, she was suddenly interrupted by her childhood friend Reliability running towards her waving what appeared to be a sheet of paper in his hand.  Vailidity and Reliabilty had been firm friends since meeting in school. Reliability was usually a calm and reassuring influence, always the same no matter what the situation and Validity felt safe in his reliable presence. Reliability was in love with Validity – unrequited of course

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