And beneath the story on the surface there is always another, told more subtly, about the compulsions, desires and anxieties that animate the first.
In one sense, that has been the story of the Milan collections, during which, whether by a sudden gasp or a story told more subtly, Italian designers have reasserted themselves in the fashion worldview.
Marc Lee of The Daily Telegraph scored the film five out of five stars, writing, "Burton's modern fairytale has an almost palpably personal feel: it is told gently, subtly and with infinite sympathy for an outsider who charms the locals but then inadvertently arouses their baser instincts".
Federal nutritional advice is now designed to tell people, subtly, to stop being so fat, while in the early decades of the 20th century, the goal was to combat malnutrition.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a subtly different version of his life.
The cave, which features not just dots but wondrous depictions of animals, was found only in 1994, by a trio of speleologists: "one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human culture," Herzog tells us, subtly hedging his bets.
I try to tell them subtly but do they listen?
Popular culture often tells us, subtly, that we should manipulate our significant other.
I was subtly told to grin and bear it.
