Tenses wrt fictional works?

[ponder]

Got thinking about this for some odd reason, which of the options below are correct?

Who lives at 221B Baker street?
Who lived at 221B Baker street?

The work of fiction is set in the past but seeing it's fiction should you not rather use 'lives'?

 

[Helghast]

if it's in the past it's in the past regardless.. it's lived.

 

[Pooky]

I think lives is generally less confusing for the answerer, as when they put themselves in reading the book, it is in the present, and the implied question is more like, In the book (insert name), who lives at 221B Baker street?

If I was given a question like, In the book (insert name), who lived at 221B Baker street? It would take me longer to process that they are referring to the fiction as in the past tense, rather than implying that in the book, there was a person that lived there, but they no longer do.

 

[Milano]

Got thinking about this for some odd reason, which of the options below are correct?

Who lives at 221B Baker street?
Who lived at 221B Baker street?

Neither. Should be:

Who lives at 221B Baker Street?
Who lived at 221B Baker Street?

 

[fastesthamster]

Got thinking about this for some odd reason, which of the options below are correct?

Who lives at 221B Baker street?
Who lived at 221B Baker street?

The work of fiction is set in the past but seeing it's fiction should you not rather use 'lives'?

Depends on the tense of the work, and where the sentence is occurring.

All of these are correct:
"Who lives at 221B Baker Street?" asked the red-headed menace.
"Who lived at 221B Baker Street?" asked the red-headed menace [in 2011].
"Who lived at 221B Baker Street?" the red-headed menace asks.

If the narrator is speaking and the tense of the novel is present, then it's:
Who lives at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself!
Otherwise, if the tense is in the past it's:
Who lived at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself!
Or, if the narrator is speaking about events in the past, but Sherlock Holmes is still alive and well and living there (from the narrator's point of view), then perhaps:
Who lives at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself! I remember the case of the red-headed menace quite well, it all began when...
but I'm not so sure about this one.

 

[SmartKit]

if it's in the past it's in the past regardless.. it's lived.

Problem is in fictional books it's not always obvious as it may be set outside our historical realm. Who lives at Ramkin Manor, Scoone Avenue, Ankh-Morpork?

 

[SmartKit]

Depends on the tense of the work, and where the sentence is occurring.

All of these are correct:
"Who lives at 221B Baker Street?" asked the red-headed menace.
"Who lived at 221B Baker Street?" asked the red-headed menace [in 2011].
"Who lived at 221B Baker Street?" the red-headed menace asks.

If the narrator is speaking and the tense of the novel is present, then it's:
Who lives at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself!
Otherwise, if the tense is in the past it's:
Who lived at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself!
Or, if the narrator is speaking about events in the past, but Sherlock Holmes is still alive and well and living there (from the narrator's point of view), then perhaps:
Who lives at 221B Baker street? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes himself! I remember the case of the red-headed menace quite well, it all began when...
but I'm not so sure about this one.

Yes, but what about a question posed to an audience currently? Since Sherlock Holmes is not dead, nor has he moved out it should be "who lives". The mistake that is made is assuming that fictional realms, however similar, are in our own historical time line.

We can convincingly ask "which school did Harry Potter attend" as we are confident he finished his studies and moved on.

 

[GreGorGy]

Got thinking about this for some odd reason, which of the options below are correct?

which of the options below IS correct?

 

[SmartKit]

which of the options below IS correct?

What if it's both?