I occasionally run into the problem of communicating a brief overview of what jurisdiction is. Thus I wanted to get a nice analogy together. My first thoughts are to use books, movies and characters and actors since the sense of fairplay and order can be easily grasped in those terms and there are good examples to bring up. For example:
Dumb and Dumberer used a Jim Carey lookalike to tell more of the story.
There are comic book cartoon movies that use characters from one owner (Marvel for example) within a story and setting from another company (DC).
If someone writes a fanfiction using the characters and settings of another author, the events of the fanfiction do not "need" to reflect in the author's future works. Though I forget who all is owned by Disney, they have some interest in keeping incompatible characters apart (Wolverine and Bugs Bunny aren't likely to do a movie, but may appear to do an anti-smoking ad).
So to explain personam jurisdiction, this relates to the fictional characters set in the desired story. To explain subject matter jurisdiction, this relates to the fictional setting used (Gotham City for instance). Law is the author's desired premise of the story. The author is the man or group that write the script. The potential surety is one of the desired actors (Jim Carey likely was desired for the Dumb and Dumber sequels). The actual surety may end up the author's first choice, or the studio may have something else in mind, or they may not be able to get an actor to sign on. If the desired actor appears on set, then it's hard for him to object to being placed into the story being told. Also an actor could be unknowingly used as in Bowfinger where Eddie Murphy is secretly and unwittingly placed into a movie.
Actors (especially those at Disneyland and in courtrooms) usually know they should never break character and will ignore anything not within that character and will not acknowledge that they have a man under the costume.
After constructing the analogy, I would try to explain the concepts of legal fiction, names, facts, terms of art/societal shorthand (which may be secret to a society, and may be unspoken), languages, and proofs to point out that court is writing a fiction; thus avoids any obligation to worldly truth, while trying to stay plausible.

Any suggestions or brainstorming?