On 2008-06-08 11:54:45 -0500, "Bob" trix.net> said:

I finally remembered the word I was trying to remember. And then I
looked it up and lo and behold it doesn't mean what Senior High School
English Teacher (the one of whom we all lived in fear) told it was:
Verisimilitude.

From the Wiki: "This classical notion of verisimilitude focused on the
role of the reader in his/her engagement in the fictional work of art.
The goal of the novel therefore, as it became a more popular form, was
to instruct and offer a pleasurable experience to the reader. The
fictional novel had to facilitate the reader's willingness to suspend
his or her disbelief, a phrase used originally by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. Verisimilitude became the means to accomplish this mindset.
In order to promote the willing suspension of disbelief, a fictional
text needed to have credibility. Anything physically possible in the
worldview of the reader or humanity's experience was defined as
credible. Through verisimilitude then, the reader was able to glean
truth even in fiction because it would reflect realistic aspects of
human life."

Close but no opium pipe.