Posted by Eduardo Arizaga on January 30, 2006 at 08:47:12:
In Reply to: To clarify :) posted by Webmaven Maggie on January 12, 2006 at 13:03:09:
As a matter of fact there is a Glock model with external safety. Indeed the Glocks have all internal safeties except for this model (A G17 made for the Venezuela Police).
: For the record, I've been discussing this on another forum and a good many of the responses seem to think that there's little difference between a fiction author getting some factoid wrong (like putting a safety on a Glock, which doesn't have a safety in case you didn't know :) and a non-fiction writer who makes up stuff
I have a feeling I'm starting to sound stuffy (oh no!) but I do think it's different if you're presenting yourself as a non-fiction writer. With a memoir, while it's clearly better stylistically to sometimes merge several characters into one in order for clarity (for example), it does bother me a bit if someone exaggerates beyond a certain point (yes, clearly, a line we draw in the sand and for each of us, it's in a different place).
If you were at a party where someone was relating a true story, and at some point the inconsistencies got too horrendous and you realized you were listening to a blowhard, wouldn't you treat everything else coming out of their mouths a bit differently, knowing it's a creative product rather than literal fact? I'm not saying I'd like it better or less, but I'd evaluate it differently. If a fiction writer has a character falling off a six story building and surviving, that's literary license. If a real person claims to have survived a six story fall, that's headline news!
So, where do you draw the line? How much creative license turns non-fiction into fiction...and do we care?
Maggie
webmaven@gregrucka.com
: I have a feeling I'm starting to sound stuffy (oh no!) but I do think it's different if you're presenting yourself as a non-fiction writer. With a memoir, while it's clearly better stylistically to sometimes merge several characters into one in order for clarity (for example), it does bother me a bit if someone exaggerates beyond a certain point (yes, clearly, a line we draw in the sand and for each of us, it's in a different place).
: If you were at a party where someone was relating a true story, and at some point the inconsistencies got too horrendous and you realized you were listening to a blowhard, wouldn't you treat everything else coming out of their mouths a bit differently, knowing it's a creative product rather than literal fact? I'm not saying I'd like it better or less, but I'd evaluate it differently. If a fiction writer has a character falling off a six story building and surviving, that's literary license. If a real person claims to have survived a six story fall, that's headline news!
: So, where do you draw the line? How much creative license turns non-fiction into fiction...and do we care?
: Maggie
: webmaven@leechild.com