Chekhov's Rifle: Going Granular, Exiting The Matrix, Quitting Fear Based Writing, And Keeping The World At Bay

We Need Beauty As Much As We Need "Truth," Maybe More

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

— Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

This famous Chekhov quote is said to express the principle in story telling of making sure all elements are a…