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>Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate. This fiction is set in reality, it's just that the specific sequence of events hasn't actuall
by blhack 16y ago
>Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate.
This fiction is set in reality, it's just that the specific sequence of events hasn't actually taken place.
- WalterBright 16y agoThe trouble with the specifics is since it's a work of fiction, there is no way to tell what is real and what is made up. Hence, reputable historians and sociologists should study reality from reputable sources.
- jacobolus 16y agoOne thing every historian learns early on is that there are no perfect sources, no single narrative. (Go watch the film Memento if you want to see some fantastic philosophical musing on this topic: we can’t ever completely trust things written in the past, especially after we’ve lost the full context of an author’s motivation) The real world is big and complicated and messy. One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions.
- philwelch 16y agoOne thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions. Sounds like an ethnography, actually. This is exactly what anthropologists do in the field.
- jacobolus 16y agoMy parents are anthropologists, and you’re certainly sort of right. I maintain though that tracking dozens of drug dealers, cops, high-level city officials, newspaper reporters, unionized dockworkers letting drugs through as a side business, junior high students, etc. etc. would be almost impossible to do to the level of detail portrayed in The Wire – it would be difficult and dangerous work and you couldn’t get that kind of access (public officials don’t admit illegal activity as a rule), etc. Of course, you’d be getting a glimpse at some real people, instead of a complete in-depth view of fictional ones.
- WalterBright 16y agoIsn't that like saying studying real world physics is hard, so we'll study Star Trek instead?
- jacobolus 16y agoIt’s a pretty strained analogy either way, but it’s much more like saying studying protein folding is hard so we use some mix of (only roughly accurate) mathematical models and (imprecise, difficult to collect) experimental data, and hope we get close enough to still draw some meaningful conclusions.
- WalterBright 16y agoIf studying real relationships is so hard, how can you tell if the made up ones are valid?
- jacobolus 16y agoWell, since the point of this TV drama is to make people think about the problems of urban life, the ways in which institutions behave, etc., it doesn’t have to be a perfect depiction of events to achieve that purpose; and indeed it could never be: a real city doesn’t only live in hour-long chunks, and has millions of people, not dozens. But one pretty good way to get feedback is to see what people say who have been in similar circumstances and social situations. Everything I’ve heard suggests that the Wire is extremely believable.
- WalterBright 16y agoWhy can a hollywood script writer do this while Harvard research academics cannot?
- jacobolus 16y agoThere are plenty of academics who write fantastic fiction. Who ever said they couldn’t?