: Re: What information about a fictional world is unnecessary? I was able to gain some insight already thanks to How much detail is too much?, but I still need a more precise answer, because my

@Goswami879

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This question reminded me of a short story by Jack London, To Light a Fire. Here's the third paragraph:

But all this—the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence
of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and
weirdness of it all—made no impression on the man. It was not because
he was long used to it. He was a new-comer in the land, a chechaquo,
and this was his first winter. The trouble with him was that he was
without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life,
but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees
below zero meant eighty odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him
as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead
him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and
upon man’s frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow
limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the
conjectural field of immortality and man’s place in the universe.
Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that
must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm
moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just
precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything
more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.

That's a lot of text, talking about the temperature, especially for a short story. But, it's not just talking about the temperature; it also establishes character, setting and theme. In this story, knowing the temperature is critical to the plot. In a different story, with a different theme, "very cold" would cover it.

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