Changing fiction for dramatic effect

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/30/2014 07:48 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>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

I would have been OK with "are [optional "now"] fictitious, having
been changed for dramatic effect."

Joel

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