 Whether works of fiction provides readers with knowledge (and, if so, what kind), there is little doubt that authors of such works often aim to communicate what they take to be salient truths in the hope of affecting their readers in some way. Upton Sinclair, for example, wanted readers of The Jungle (1906) to recognize the poor treatment of workers in Chicago slaughter-houses, and to respond to this treatment with anger. Even more familiar, however, is the way authors try to get readers of a work of fiction to respond emotionally to the fictional truths they encounter in the work, rather than any actual truths. To take a classic example, on reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, a reader may feel deep pity for Anna Karenina because of her increasing despair as Vronsky distances himself from her, an emotion Tolstoy no doubt expected and intended. But this generates a famous puzzle: how can a reader feel pity for Anna, knowing that Anna doesn’t exist? This puzzle, commonly known as the paradox of fiction or the paradox of fictional emotions, involves a triad of seemingly compelling but incompatible claims about emotional responses generated by engaging with fiction. For a representative formulation: 