A book that is non-fiction in my mind needs to be about 98% true and let me explain that. A non-fiction book needs to be factual and truthful. An author in my mind can take the 2% and rearrange dialogue, small details, and the take out a bit of the unnecessary things to keep the story rolling. If this non-fiction book is for a doctor or other professional field I would highly recommend making that 100% and keeping all of the little tidbits in. I like half-truth stories but they should go under the section of realistic fiction because only half of it actually occurred. I think the reason Frey and Mortenson changed his fictional book in to a memoir was so that it would simply get published. I could understand bending the truth a bit in a memoir just because you need to keep the reader interested but you can’t change huge details that sticks out and makes you remember it the most. What Frey did wasn’t non-fiction and it wasn’t 95% truthful because running someone down with a train is 100% different than just being as he said “affected” by it or as I say he was just upset. Minute details can’t be changed from a couple of harmless hours in jail to month after month of agony. It’s changing small details in to something big that really irritates me. David Shield had a great idea of taking other people’s writings and making a new story. He is trying to take out that line of fiction and non-fiction. This is not a plus for me considering I go to check out books in certain sections of the library and if they come out with a whatever section then I would have problems. I think there needs to be a separation like a pizza and peanut butter where it’s very strange together, correct? Books should be evenly and happily divided.
I agree that a nonfiction book needs to be about 98 or 99 percent true, an author can have a little bit of room to move around or take out details but most of the book must be true.
ReplyDeleteNon-fiction needs to be 100% ture or we wouldn't be able to trust any information in that book. What if encyclopedias were only 98% true? You wouldn't know what 2% was fake, but I guess you could hope it was not what you were looking up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you said authors can bend the truth a little bit in order to keep the story rolling, as long as it stays true the main story.
ReplyDeleteIs it right to bend the truth in your mind? For a memoir.
ReplyDeleteI agree when you said that he didn't change 95%. Those would definitely be the events i remembered and i want those at least to be true.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that authors should bend the truth, unless it's petty things like dialouge, names, and un-important events
ReplyDeleteI completely agree what you said here. It bothers me when people change too much and when they don't change enough I think its not exciting anymore. So by changing 98% I think that benefits everyone.
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