Anthropomorphism is a literary necessity, not a scientific error.

Evidence

Human character is in the foreground of all fiction, however the humanity might be disguised. Attributing human characteristics to the natural world may be frowned on in science, but it is a literary necessity. Bugs Bunny isn’t a rabbit; he’s a plucky youth in ears. Peter Rabbit is a mischievous boy. Brer Rabbit is a sassy rebel. The romantic heroes of Watership Down are out of the Arthurian tradition, not out of the hutch. — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to my earlier notes on literary necessity versus scientific frowning in other craft books like A Terrible Thing to Waste. — connects to: Literary language’s mood can be carried over onto real, living things rather than arguments — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1840; Anthropomorphism is conditional and triggered, not automatic and promiscuous — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 669

Broader Connections

• Literary language’s mood can be carried over onto real, living things rather than arguments #expands (0.70) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1840