At least we admit what we write is fiction!

[voluptuary_manque]

It would appear that a number of authors can't see the difference!

 

[ukrocker69]

If you publish something as fact and then write fiction you are lying to your readers. Dishonest and in my opinion pathetic. Like all the people who post in "Experiences" threads with material that doesn't feel real or contains so much "Artistic license" (20" appendages for example) that it is fiction.

Obviously a line can't be drawn easily. An example most people will be familiar with was the recent (OK not so recent now) "Titanic" film: Titanic - IMDB

We can all see that a section of the story is true (The boat sinks). And a section of the story is fantasy (the rest of the film).

The issue comes when the line between fact and fictional components is not clear or is hidden altogether.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Faux "True Stories" have abounded in the publishing world forever; James MacPherson claimed to have unearthed the Ossian Cycle and translated it into English, and to this day there is controversy over his claim. (Some good stuff, too-- here it is online).

... dammit, I had another example, but I got caught up in Ossian!

"Go ask Alice" was supposed to be a real diary, and Carlos Castaneda's books are supposed to be real anthropology...

And this guy, Forrest Carter, who pretended to be Cherokee, but was really a white Klu Klux Klanner.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I remember Castenada! There were a couple of dewy-eyed innocents in the dorms back in college who believed every word of his books. What a fraud. Magical wishful thinking as science has been a bane on the human intellect since at least Bacon, if not before. What ever happened to him, anyway? Did he take his money and settle in the South of France, cocking a snook at all those gullible enough to buy his twaddle?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I remember Castenada! There were a couple of dewy-eyed innocents in the dorms back in college who believed every word of his books. What a fraud. Magical wishful thinking as science has been a bane on the human intellect since at least Bacon, if not before. What ever happened to him, anyway? Did he take his money and settle in the South of France, cocking a snook at all those gullible enough to buy his twaddle?

No, he lived in Hollywood with a harem of three, who just might have committed mass suicide when he died...

oooOOOOoooooOOOOOoo

 

[Guest]

It's another Oprah book-club fraud. Is this the third one now?

The difference here is that this man was actually in a concentration camp as a child. He just added a few details.

The Holocaust was horrific enough, it does not need any sort of embellishing. Don't give the Holocaust deniers any more ammunition.

 

[Guest]

Oh - and VM?

All my stories are true.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

ROFLMAO

Mine are all wishful thinking!

 

[3113]

Of all the faux reality stories they named I liked this one best:

Earlier this year, a Belgian woman revealed she had invented her tale of survival as a Jewish girl searching for her parents with a pack of wolves in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Damn! I so coulda written that!

 

[Guest]

Of all the faux reality stories they named I liked this one best:

Damn! I so coulda written that!

Zombies.

I would've put zombies in there.

 

[cloudy]

Zombies.

I would've put zombies in there.

and pirate ninjas.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

and pirate ninjas.

What? Not teen-age turtles?

 

[The_Fool]

I admit to nothing...

 

[3113]

I would've put zombies in there.

and pirate ninjas.

Although I'm sure my young self and the loyal wolf pack I ran with--and was princess of--could have managed zombies and pirate ninjas as we dodged bombs and tanks through the snow-covered alps and protected many a gypsy encampent, I fear I must keep to the truth and only the truth. Our only enemies were the Nazis.

Okay, one Zombie Nazi, but just one. And a vampire.

 

[Jack_Samuel]

i think the people who make up this %&$@ probably believe it.

Hey teenage zombie nija turtles probably do exist on their planet

 

[Safe_Bet]

Although I'm sure my young self and the loyal wolf pack I ran with--and was princess of--could have managed zombies and pirate ninjas as we dodged bombs and tanks through the snow-covered alps and protected many a gypsy encampent, I fear I must keep to the truth and only the truth. Our only enemies were the Nazis.

Okay, one Zombie Nazi, but just one. And a vampire.

Hell Girl? Is that you?

 

[3113]

Hell Girl? Is that you?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/Kaji_Onizuka/Randy_Green_s_Hell_Girl_by_impwerx_.jpg

I've been found out!

 

[Jack_Samuel]

Hell Girl most be the mother of all red heads lol

 

[john-the-author]

I remember Castenada! There were a couple of dewy-eyed innocents in the dorms back in college who believed every word of his books. What a fraud. Magical wishful thinking as science has been a bane on the human intellect since at least Bacon, if not before. What ever happened to him, anyway? Did he take his money and settle in the South of France, cocking a snook at all those gullible enough to buy his twaddle?

He got a professorship at UCLA with the Ph.D. unrightfully earned from all of his fiction and taught there (I presume) until he died.

And let's not forget "Dr." Bruno Bettelheim, whose theories of psychoanalysis actually got credence. I recall he was busy interpreting fairy tales in a Freudian way without regard for the fact that the versions he was taking as folk tales were in fact just the most recent/most popular versions of them. His stuff was complete horseshit. He committed suicide in 1990 and it came out that he had absolutely no qualifications to have been doing any of this, let alone a medical license or psychiatric training.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

He got a professorship at UCLA with the Ph.D. unrightfully earned from all of his fiction and taught there (I presume) until he died.

And let's not forget "Dr." Bruno Bettelheim, whose theories of psychoanalysis actually got credence. I recall he was busy interpreting fairy tales in a Freudian way without regard for the fact that the versions he was taking as folk tales were in fact just the most recent/most popular versions of them. His stuff was complete horseshit. He committed suicide in 1990 and it came out that he had absolutely no qualifications to have been doing any of this, let alone a medical license or psychiatric training.

And then what's his name in Colorado who was finally fired for falsifying his job application, claiming to be American Indian when every nation around kept saying that he was a fraud. Took 'em . . . what? 10 years to finally catch on? I dunno about academics, and I are one!

 

[Liar]

It's another Oprah book-club fraud. Is this the third one now?

The difference here is that this man was actually in a concentration camp as a child. He just added a few details.

Yeah, but couldn't you say the same thing about James Frey? If you replace "in a concentration camp as a child" with "a junkie".

 

[Guest]

Yeah, but couldn't you say the same thing about James Frey? If you replace "in a concentration camp as a child" with "a junkie".

Yes - you're right, of course.

They should write fiction instead, but I suppose the allure of a "true" story sells better?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Blame it on "Reality" television.

 

[3113]

Yes - you're right, of course.

They should write fiction instead, but I suppose the allure of a "true" story sells better?

And, alas pays better. Anyone can make up such a story, but to have actually lived it? For that the publishers will pay big money.

Oh, and I still live with wolves. Really.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

And, alas pays better. Anyone can make up such a story, but to have actually lived it? For that the publishers will pay big money.

Oh, and I still live with wolves. Really.

Hot Mama lives with a bear. Really.