But at least it wasn't literally incestuous — until yesterday, that is, when the sitcom actress Mackenzie Phillips, John's daughter with his first wife Susan Adams and, briefly, a member of the reconstituted group dubbed the New Mamas and Papas, reported in her new memoir, "High on Arrival" that she had an incestuous affair with her father.
In "Amazons," Mayor — a classicist, based at Stanford, who is by all accounts the world's leading expert on ancient female fighters — argues that, even if it is not literally true in all its particulars, it is still broadly true.
Of course it is not literally built on the experience, since the experience is gone.
" 'A Separate Peace' is based on experiences that I had, but it is not literally true," he said.
But even if the account I have given of it is not literally true, it may still serve as an allegory of our political and historical condition".
Of course, it's not literally impossible that Mr. Ryan could turn out to be the 45th American president precisely (Mr. Obama is the 44th).
Mathematics is not supposed to be literally true, say the fictionalists, and they have a long explanation of why mathematics is pragmatically useful and intellectually interesting despite the fact that it is not literally true.
It's very difficult, to be sure and, in some cases, it's not a wise thing to do but it's not literally impossible.
