<p>wow its so divided... I changed my answer from puzzlement - fabricating to enigma - edifying because while fabricating made sense from a definition perspective, using fable in that sense would have no relevant impact on the passage... edifying is relevant</p>
<p>i put puzzlement fabricating</p>
<p>From Dictionary.com: Definition of Fabricating.</p>
<ol>
<li> to make by assembling parts or sections.</li>
<li> to devise or invent (a legend, lie, etc.)</li>
</ol>
<p>these definitions definitely go with a Fable.</p>
<p>/discussion :)</p>
<p>what's wrong with imaginative/historic? : (</p>
<p>puzzling - fabricating </p>
<p>only because i didn't know the definition of "edifying"</p>
<p>To those of you who didn't read the paragraph:</p>
<p>The chinese guy was talking about how he was filling in the blanks in his mind...fabricating facts, if you will, about his fathers life. He was talking about writing fiction as well. Those clues tell you that it was puzzling-fabricating.</p>
<p>Riddle and Fable is Enigmatic and edifying.
riddle is enigmatic, and fable is, by definition, "moral lesson." edifying is "uplifting so as to encourage intellectual or moral improvement." it matches.</p>
<p>the chinese guy never said that his dad was a fabrication. in fact, he was arguing against it. that he can't understand his dad's biography</p>
<p>Puzzlement-fabricating</p>
<p>There was no big lesson, as in the definition of "edifying", he just said how individual lives become fabrications with retelling.</p>
<p>I agree with Enigma - Edifying!</p>
<p>I read the paragraph and noticed that he was filling in the blanks with FACTS. He was decoding his father's essays in Chinese, trying to make sense of the little information he had. He was clinging to the few stories he knew of his dad, he definitely wasn't making up stories. He said he wouldn't make stories up - that was the basis of the last paragraph. This question was about a transition from one thing to another. The author was admitting defeat, in a sense. He had originally viewed his father's like as something he could learn more about, but he was admitting that it was in fact too mysterious, too enigmatic, to figure out. There's my justification. I'll stand behind my enigma/edifying, thankyouverymuch.</p>
<p>^ It's not necessarily about him making up stories, but society in general. Their lack of information become fabrications when they have to fill in the blanks of what they are missing. He talks about his role as a writer when his writings on his father are just as much as what he desires it to be as opposed to the truth, therefore becoming fabrications. There is no larger moral lesson in the story. "Edifying" can be implied to but it connects in no way the central theme of the reading.</p>
<p>I put puzzlement and fabricating.</p>
<p>I say enigmatic/edifying. The other way is too literal. Agree with all the explanations posted before.</p>
<p>i put puzzlement and fabricating as well.</p>
<p>It's enigma-edifying because the "fable" was an assumed-to-be-true story (not a myth), therefore not fabricated (because it was more fact and assumption than an actual lie). I had only a vague idea of what edifying meant, but I knew it wasn't fabricated.</p>
<p>i put puzzlement fabricating</p>
<p>From Dictionary.com: Definition of Fabricating.</p>
<ol>
<li>to make by assembling parts or sections.</li>
<li>to devise or invent (a legend, lie, etc.)</li>
</ol>
<p>these definitions definitely go with a Fable.</p>
<p>/discussion</p>
<p>/facepalm you'llsee</p>
<p>It wasn't talking about a fable as in a made-up story, if you read into the paragraph for context clues.</p>
<p>i'm an "enigma/edifying" partisan</p>