Guilty or not guilty?
David_Mason
Writer
"All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental."
This is a typical statement in the front matter of works of fiction, though in my books I add the words "or somewhere in-between" because the odd necromancer pops up from time to time and dabbles in raising the dead, (the ones with flesh still on the bone are really smelly).
But is this statement actually true? How many writers base a character on someone they know just so they can have the satisfaction of killing them off in some grisly and gruesome fashion?
So with the pen being mightier than the sword, how do you plead, guilty or not guilty of literary murder with malice aforethought?
DM
This is a typical statement in the front matter of works of fiction, though in my books I add the words "or somewhere in-between" because the odd necromancer pops up from time to time and dabbles in raising the dead, (the ones with flesh still on the bone are really smelly).
But is this statement actually true? How many writers base a character on someone they know just so they can have the satisfaction of killing them off in some grisly and gruesome fashion?
So with the pen being mightier than the sword, how do you plead, guilty or not guilty of literary murder with malice aforethought?
DM
Comments
You are telling a necessary lie to protect yourself from being sued by anyone who thinks they see a resemblance.
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As for characters, well, I plead the fifth amendment. The best characters draw from reality, to be sure. Part of the author's craft is to blend the real and the unreal, to make the character less than unique while maintaining the strong qualities of the person from whom the image is drawn. And that poses problems for us, of course.
To make a character who is completely unlike every living human in every possible respect is impossible, at least if we want people to relate to the character. And that's the key: To be a good character, people have to believe that such a character might exist.
That limits us. There are real things that happen which might be funny or poignant but which we cannot use because we cannot separate the person from the story. And that is why it is often said that fact is stranger than fiction.
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My Books:
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My Books:
https://voidwheretaxed.wixsite.com/rockandfirepress/about
The Flemish live in Flanders / Flandre(s) / Vlanderen, and Flanders spread beyond the border with the North of France (Dunkirk, Hazebrouck, etc.). Flemish people are the same race as the Dutch, and their language is the same, except that Dutch has many dialects so that a Flemish from Doornick / Tournai may not understand a Dutch from the island of Heligoland and vice versa. The written language is the same; the major Flemish newspaper, De Telegraaf, can be understood by all Dutch speakers.
Dutch, English and German are Germanic languages whose common ancestor is Proto-Germanic. Generally Flemish students are good at English and German, but not very good at French. Conversely Walloon students are good at Spanish or Italian, but not very good at Dutch, English or German.
DM
DM