Speaking of love-hate relationships, there is a type of book that I both love and hate, and that is the pseudo-historical novel. This is a novel which is set in history and contains sufficient historical accuracy to create versimilitude but then some of the details that are presented as historical are totally invented. I love this kind of book, but when this effect is done well it is very disorienting. There are several modern masters of this sub-genere, including:
- Umberto Eco - i.e. Name of the Rose
- Michael Crichton - i.e. Eaters of the Dead
- Dan Brown - i.e. DaVinci Code
- Harry Turtledove - anything he writes. Turtledove is THE master of alternate history.
3 comments:
There is always a certain element of danger involved when one consciously chooses to pick nits with another. This is especially true when the level of intelligence and/or education is suspected to be superior to that of the challenger.
Reference is made here to to the use of the Latin, id est (that is) rather than the term, exempli gratia (for example). It would appear that referenced titles are, indeed, examples.
Of course sarcasm is part of this reality.
Gee, thanks (I think)for the good lesson in Latin. I bet I won't make that mistake again - at least not easily.
But - reading back over my post I still haven't been able to locate the nits you say I picked...
Mein Herr, you misunderstand. It is I who was nitpicking, not you. Please read the opening paragraph more carefully. I challenged you.
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