False Histories

[devilchicken]

I've just received a submission for another pseudo-history book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159...Fencoding=UTF8

A few weeks before that - I got another title purporting to be the 'lost history of Lemuria'. I know this isn't new (after all Von Daniken made a career off 'mayan spacemen') - but I wonder if this bothers anyone else - that this tosh is being sold and marketed as 'history', rather than the fiction it clearly is. As I see it, this is far more dishonest than say, James Frey's 'embellished' memoir (which I think said more about the people reading it than the book itself). Clearly there is a market for historical 'wish-fulfillment'.

Just found out today that I'm out of a job at the end of the month....

[PsychicWarVeteran]

Intelligence is History

I wonder if this bothers anyone else - that this tosh is being sold and marketed as 'history', rather than the fiction it clearly is.

Oh, you don't want to ge me started... The whole pathetic row over "The DiVinci Code" has been enough to make me want to smack people and tell them to get smarter.

Just found out today that I'm out of a job at the end of the month....

Damn! First your immigration problems and now this? Dude, are you starting to question why you left the UK?

Best of luck in finding a new job, devilchicken.

[devilchicken]

Well to be fair I was working as a temp through a Manhattan agency, so its not all "that" unexpected.

That said, I've been doing the job (an editorial assistant for the book club division of Random House) for two months (and have several years of experience behind me as a Technical Writer). They hired someone straight out of uni, who is going to have to learn the job with a bare minimum of training (essentially, a disorganized arch-lever file full of loose paper). I at least had the person doing the job before me show me what to do...

After 7 years working for various different large corporations, I don't expect their to necessarily make sense...

[PsychicWarVeteran]

Well to be fair I was working as a temp through a Manhattan agency, so its not all "that" unexpected.

Well, at least they'll probably hook you up with a new job (which, admittedly, may or may not be as cool as the last one).

I should mention that I got one of the best jobs I ever had (Game Play Counselor for Nintendo of America) by starting as a temp in the mailroom. Here's hoping your next temp assignment places you where you want to be.

They hired someone straight out of uni, who is going to have to learn the job with a bare minimum of training...

Yeah, it's sad how that works. I mean, you just know he/she is not going to be able to just pick up and do the job as well as you do it. I had a boss at Nintendo who didn't know the first damn thing about game-play, yet there he was, twelling me how to be a game counselor. Sucked.

[Reinart der Fuchs]

Bringing in the interns is the black smoke on a sinking ship.

Kirk, my manager recently left the company, not unexpectedly. I now do the work of three people, and I assume this positions me favorable to inherit a 4th and 5th person's job. My manager was clueless, and from all appearances, the departure has been beneficial. Go figure.

[EverKing]

The whole pathetic row over "The DiVinci Code" has been enough to make me want to smack people and tell them to get smarter.

I know how you feel. Few things have disgusted me more than the hubbub and hype with "The DaVinci Code." I mean, c'mon people!! It is a fictional novel!


I did see something humorous on "The Colbert Report" last night. They showed a clip from some program on Fox News where the old quote of monkeys writting Hemmingway was mentioned. Stephen Colbert went on to show the hierarchy of how many monkeys plus how much time equals which author. A million monkeys with infinate time equals Shakespere; 10,000 monkeys plus 10,000 equals Hemmingway (he noted that they'd have to be drunk first); and 10 monkeys plus 10 days equals Dan Brown.

[PsychicWarVeteran]

I did see something humorous on "The Colbert Report" last night. They showed a clip from some program on Fox News where the old quote of monkeys writting Hemmingway was mentioned. Stephen Colbert went on to show the hierarchy of how many monkeys plus how much time equals which author. A million monkeys with infinate time equals Shakespere; 10,000 monkeys plus 10,000 equals Hemmingway (he noted that they'd have to be drunk first); and 10 monkeys plus 10 days equals Dan Brown.

I love Stephen Colbert. But not in a way that would disgust him.

By the way, EverKing, your sig rocks. Used to use that same Einstein quote all the time. Dude had a sense of humor.

Berry, I'm just glad you're still employed. Was a bit worried there for a while when things were getting all shaken up.

[Morgan Kane]

Everybody knows that History by Lovecraft ( rewritten by Call of Chtulhu game writers ) and Howard ( Conan ) is the true history ?

And that Napoleon and Hitler are myths !

Unbelivers .....

Tjere is an urgency to educate people and to learn them to distinguish fact from fiction, even shown by TV.

A french author published a book explaining that there was never a plane crashed on Pentagone on the 21/09/2001 and this was discussed at T.V. as a serious subject.

The reality of the mass killing of the jews is viewed by some as debatable.

The problem is that what the TV shows as serious or subject to talk is seen as as true as established history .....

I am sure that if somebody writes a book to explain why Queen Victoria was in truth a man, TV would treat him as serious, invite him to debate and some people would believe it .

[EverKing]

Yeah, if people want to start taking fiction for fact, at least chose good fiction..."Gloriana"..."Behold the Man"...

[EverKing]

By the way, EverKing, your sig rocks. Used to use that same Einstein quote all the time. Dude had a sense of humor.

That he did.

I was debating between that one and one from Churchill (Winston, of course)..."It is a good thing for the uneducated to read a book of quotes."

I love that one because of where I work; this place is obsessed with quotes. We have a "Quote of the Day" that is posted all over the building. Different departments submit quotes each week. Last time it was my Team's turn to contribute I threw that Churchill quote out there...it never became a "QotD" (I stopped it before hand) and only about 1/4 of the people understood the humor. So sad.

[PsychicWarVeteran]

...only about 1/4 of the people understood the humor.

Thereby proving the Churchill quote to be true!

[devilchicken]

That's reminded me of an incident that happened at high school. A kid in my class (we were both 11 at the time) tried to convince me that Return of the Living Dead was a true story, because a line of text popped up just before the credits and said so.

I could never convince him otherwise...

"If the TV says its true, it must be!"

Scary...

[Michael Moorcock]

People still insist (a) That my grandfather wrote The Warlord of the Air and (b) that I died in Birmingham at the age of 30. Someone in a pub a few years ago came up and said 'aren't you Mike Moorcock'. Yes, I said.
'Then can I bring my mate over so you can tell him you're not dead ?'
Certainly, I said. The bloke came over and I said I was alive. No, you're not, he insisted. What can you do ?

[devilchicken]

No small wonder really that soap operas are able to get away with increasingly outlandish storylines.

I wonder if Dirty Den will make a 3rd reappearance on Eastenders after another 10 years or so...

[David Mosley]

No small wonder really that soap operas are able to get away with increasingly outlandish storylines.

I wonder if Dirty Den will make a 3rd reappearance on Eastenders after another 10 years or so...

EastEnders hasn't been the same since a quite unrealistic storyline in 1992, when a bunch of time travellers and assorted weirdies turned up in Albert Square. It's never recovered from that travesty. :)