Changing fiction for dramatic effect

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Jan 31 00:48:55 UTC 2014


On Jan 30, 2014, at 6:43 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 6:22 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> What interested me is the implied reading that some *fictional*
>> events needed dramatic improvement.  They could have written them as
>> sufficiently improved dramatically in the first place.  Or at the
>> very least improved them at some time between the first
>> screenwriters' product and the release without needing a disclaimer
>> to the viewer.
>>
>
> Especially when the disclaimer makes no sense. "... are _fictitious_ and
> have been changed for dramatic effect." Changed into what? Into the truth?
> After all, truth is stranger, hence more "dramatic," than fiction. so it is
> said.
>
Just to play devil's advocate, Joel's original post quoted the advisory as follows: "Some names, places and incidents are fictitious and have been changed for dramatic effect."  Perhaps they are *now* fictitious, having been altered from the original real status precisely to make them fictitious, avoiding embarrassment, lawsuits, etc.  Makes sense to me, although a "now" would have helped.

LH

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