I sometimes enjoy musing from the starting premise that ‘Reality’ IS narrative. This dispenses with the duality of there being a set, unknowable ‘true reality’ pitched against ‘us’; Observers filling in the myriad gaps to create our own story.
‘Reality IS narrative’ seems quite easy to get a handle on when thinking of our night-time dreams. The environment, events, dramas and very fabric of that reality is all of the same stuff. It is a ‘compensatory narrative’. Of course it’s not ‘real’, but it certainly does appear so when immersed in it.
Our ‘reality’ is not just one story, it is a stream, and every eddy and twist is a different narrative. We have become hyper-connected and hence we are subject to ever increasing cognitive chaos.
Coherence and continuity are not interdependent. Coherence is fundamental; Continuity is optional. Coherence does not need to be logical or elaborate; it only needs to be a thread width to provide the means to negotiate the maze.
When I ponder on such things, to their ‘logical’ conclusion, I can even get to the point that science and the scientific method itself, becomes just another story. It is our (western world's) predominant narrative.
But perhaps in another world, at another time, another entirely different avenue for the exploration of reality may have blossomed; And it became ‘real and true’ because that is how reality moulds itself; It is a story and anything is possible in a story.