The two resonance structures in Eq. 1.6 are fictitious,but nitromethane is a *real* molecule. Because we have no way to describe nitromethane accurately with a single Lewis structure, we must describe it as the hybrid of two fictitious structures. An analogy to this situation is a description of Fred Flatfoot, a real detective. Lacking words to describe Fred, we picture him as a resonance hybrid of two *fictional* characters:

Fred Flatfoot = [Sherlock Holmes James Bond]

This suggest that Fred is a dashing, violin-playing, pipe-smoking, highly intelligent British agent with an assistant named Watson, and that Fred likes his martinis shaken, not stirred.