When doing the readings for class last week, I hadn't had the chance to read about the individual fake memoirs, just about the general topic. When Andrea mentioned the one about the child walking across Europe and living with the wolves, I had to go back and read about it in detail. Reading about the Holocaust is a big interest of mine, especially about the children who survived the Nazis. Even though this is not real story, I want to read it. I don't understand why an author would want to write an untruth. Why not just write a Historical Fiction??? I guess it wouldn't have the same "wow" or "shock" factor but to lie? I don't get it!
I pasted the link for the book that caught my attention. I am going to try and find a copy of this book to read as fiction since that is obviously what it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha:_A_M%C3%A9moire_of_the_Holocaust_Years
I wonder if authors get punished for writing something and claiming it to be true? I mean in education it is called cheating and they are reprimanded.
This article is also about fake memoirs. I found it to be interesting and thought I would share. He proposes answers to the questions I have already asked.
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/an-experiment-for-fake-memoirs/
As for legal ramifications, I did a search to see if it is illegal to write something and pose it as truth when in reality it isn't. I found the answers on this site to be interesting.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100221101511AAxFMQA
Regardless, I think it is very shifty to write something and claim for it to be real. This is not fair to those who have had things happen to them that is worthy to write about, but if too many people write about fake real things, then people will begin to doubt the actual real stories about there. We don't want to lessen or cheapen their experiences.
The Nazi story was one of the controversial ones, but was true. But we did get the word today that Last Train to Hiroshima is being kept on the shelves for now. The publisher has actually taken the step of recalling copies!
ReplyDeleteI think you're thinking of a different Nazi one. The one I posted the link for, the author admitted that it was false. I still want to read it though!
ReplyDeleteYou will want to read Lovely Green Eyes - Lustig. It is about a 15 year old girl who is Jewish and escapes the Nazi's by serving as an official prostitute to the Nazi's army. Hold on to your heart. It's fiction but it gives a voice to many such young girls/women used during WWII in this way - the Japanese had "comfort women" to serve their armies and most were from China and the Philippines if I recall correctly.
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