Fiction vs History?

[Ghetta Life]

>From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>
> > Writing history off as fiction, blurring the lines between history and 
>fiction is pernicious -- harmful; destructive.
>
>This is bunkum. Historians select, arrange and interpret textual data, and 
>then represent it again, in much the same way that any writer of fiction 
>does.
>
>Historians themselves -- good ones -- since the mid-nineteenth century have 
>recognised that the line between history and fiction is blurred. It's also 
>a recognition which has been a constant in Pynchon's work from V. to M&D. 
>It's the fallacious assumption that history somehow presents "the truth" 
>which is potentially pernicious, not the recognition that it doesn't.

I like the above point/counterpoint.  Of course we all know the path of 
responsibility proceeds between the two (but I don’t think MalignD ever said 
historians should be writing “Truth.”)., but  one crucial difference between 
history and fiction is that history attempts to recount event which actually 
occurred, but fictional events are not purported to have ever occurred in 
the physical realm.  That difference makes all the difference.  That 
difference has something to do with the mission of the two genres.  Of 
course historians have throughout time had agendas which have colored their 
representations, but their accounts are subject to examination using facts.  
Now don’t please say that facts are no different than fiction.

In this present US election cycle an analogy of the difference between 
history and fiction might be seen in the political coverage of a news 
journalist.  When Bush says something exaggerated or completely fabricated 
about Kerry, and in the same news cycle Kerry points to a recorded fact 
about the Bush’s misdeeds, should the reporter proceed to just parrot both 
statements in a he-said/he-said manner?  I guess the answer depends on what 
the journalist’s mission is.  Does he have a responsibility to point out 
which statements are contrary to fact?  I think so.  Are lies 
indistinguishable from fact?  No,  Neither is history indistinguishable from 
fiction.

Ghetta

_________________________________________________________________
Check out Election 2004 for up-to-date election news, plus voter tools and 
more! http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx