The human version of this drive is augmented by our cognitive capacity for imagination and for storytelling: we can imagine scenarios that have not happened to us, and we can use stories of others’ survival as evidence about what is possible.

Jean Hilliard’s story is told so often, in so many formats, because it addresses a scenario that most people in cold climates have at least a passing relationship to: what if I got very cold and couldn’t get to warmth?

The answer that her story provides — that the body can maintain a thread of viability even under conditions that appear to completely sever it — is a story that people want to hear.

It is also a story about the relationship between appearance and reality.