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Reader question: Please explain this sentence and “fish story” in particular: If you think this is just another fish story, contact us for more information and a demonstration. My comments: If you don’t believe this is true, come to us and we’ll show you how to do it. In other words, this is not just another fish story, it’s true. Fish story is a story that sounds, er, fishy, suspicious, unbelievable, far-fetched, incredible, exaggerated. In short, untrue. Fish stories are originally tales told by fishermen, about what a big fish they “almost caught”. Professional fishermen, and amateur anglers also, are wont to do that. Even though all they’ve got in the net are finger-sized fish, they tend to brag instead about what a big fish it was that they let off the hook, one with a head looking “bigger than the front of my boat!” Or they’ll talk about the killer shark that threatened to attack them, its head “the size of a house”. Anyways, fish story or fish tale has been an American idiom since 1819 (Merriam-Webster.com). Here are examples from the Web: 1. fish story: The Psychology in the Fiction As one reads Moby-Dick with an eye to the parables within, one is struck time and again with the images of pride, madness, revenge, humor, and others too numerous to mention. A paper as short as this can only emphasize to the reader that every chapter is replete with secondary meaning. If you read Moby-Dick and imagine into it from an altitude of 50,000 feet, one point is obvious: Almost every chapter stands on its own as a source of insight into Psyche. The warp and weave of the story has recurring themes such as this one of madness we have taken on. Read it a second time and a new theme appears. But all of this is true only if the reader comes to the story with imaginal reality in mind. As was said earlier, without imaginal reality imposed upon Moby-Dick, it is just another fish story. | 
