John A. Broussard

I think we're getting somewhere now.

If a work of fiction contains something that someone considers to be misinformation then__________________________.

Fill in the blank. What are the consequences?

The law, in cases of libel, makes no decision whatsoever about the merits of the publication. It may decide, correctly or incorrectly, that the person bringing the suit was libeled--nothing beyond that.

John A. Broussard

There is considerable evidence that Shakespeare's Richard III is a gross distortion--actually a false picture--of that monarch.

How does that affect the literary value of that work?

NOGO

In the case of the DaVinci code I stated before and I will state it again...
the author could have left out some of the erroneous statements with no loss to the story. Many people who read these statements believed them to be true. I consider that unfortunate and avoidable.

That's it, that's all. There are no consequences. I never implied any consequences. I am criticisiing Dan Brown for putting these statements in the mouth of one of his characters. I enjoyed the book minus the above.

cognac

Sorry, but this libel analogy is completely off base. It has no bearing on the discussion at hand. The person of JAB who posts in this forum is not an historical character of magnitude. Comparing DVC's historical errors to contempory libel again JAB does not hold.

I'm sorry that some of you have a misconception about the nature of fiction. It's unfortunate because this is also a misconception on the part of many, which says much more about the sad state of culture illiteracy than about some author of pop fiction.

Whether or not any of you agree about what writers of fiction should do, the fact is that writers of fiction use historical characters in a variety of ways, including complete and utter misreprenstations of their historical merit. This is a time-honored practice, going back way before Shakespeare. Regardless of the controversy over DVC, this practice will continue to be used by fiction authors and will continued to be published.

The reasoned response, IMHO, is to raise culture awareness, as opposed to lambasting authors.

John A. Broussard

I think what NOGO and GakuseiDon are saying is that fiction should always present historical characters (and history and the universe in general) the actual way they are and were.

Insofar as fictional works fail to do so, they are of less literary merit.

I (and you) disagree with that opinion.

I now see that our differences cannot be resolved, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone in my view.

cognac

You're right. The disagreement is not going to be resolved.

What I was trying to get across in my last post is that not only are you not alone in your view, but have the weight of fiction and writing behind you from the last few thousand years. Their failure is to disregard this fact which marginalizes their perspective and aligns them more with the critics (if you can really call them that) who rake DVC for every last misplaced iota.

I was hoping this thread was going to go away, but I feel I keep having to come back to make a plea for fiction when I see it's popped up again ... creative voices crying in the cultural wilderness ...

--Ronald Keith