Latour's Inquiry into Modes of Existence undertakes a re-evaluation of both modern ontology and ANT: Adding qualitative differentiation to quantitative network analysis is tantamount to the outline of a pluralist ontology distinguishing a variety of different modes of being in the world. The aim is to make more space in order to provide proper accommodation for all enti-ties, especially for those a monist ontology could not account for. Both [HAB], habit, and [FIC], fiction, are modes that deserve a particular amount of space; [HAB] due to its all-pervasiveness in everyday courses of action, [FIC] due to its crucial role in anthropogenesis and its vital importance for many other modes. Nonetheless, there is an opposite tendency to restrict the possibilities of these modes. This is elucidated first by comparing [HAB] with other philosophical assessments of habit and [FIC] with Serres' readings of works of art and literary texts, and second via a confrontation of [FIC] and [HAB] with Proust's In Search of Lost Time, a work of fiction inquiring deeply into the workings of habit.