Within reason, that is. “It’s useless to point out to the storyteller that stereotypes are abundant in real life. The narrator says he’s sorry: look, the thief really was Neapolitan, and there really was laundry hanging in the alley. … In this case stereotypes become functional” — they become a shorthand for the reader, helping the narrative flow smoothly — “the writer obeys rules; the story is a journey with inevitable stopping points – very familiar, yet always enjoyable.”