On Nov 23, 8:18 am, The Historian wrote:
On Nov 23, 4:26 am, help bot wrote:

At that time the
relevant police organ would have been the People's Commissariat for
Internal Affairs, the NKVD. Perhaps a distinction without a
difference, but it's important to keep facts straight.

Um, no. What is important to the writer is to weave
an interesting plot, with elements of surprise and
characters who strike a chord with the readers. Only
in, say, a detective story (think Sherlock Holmes) is
the keeping of facts in their proper order important,
for the readers will feel cheated otherwise.

I do hope you don't mean chronology when you write "a proper order",

Given the context of my comment, it is clear that TK's
term "straight" (and hence my follow-up comment) were
in reference to factual accuracy, not chronology.


because it's common to present facts to the reader that the reader
won't understand yet or misinterpret. Think of the dog that didn't
bark in Conan Doyle's short story Silver Blaze, for instance. Or the
Christie novel with Hercule Poirot - I don't recall the name of it -

Fritz? Rover?


in which the detective asks someone - the butler, if I recall
correctly - to verify the date on the calendar; the reader assumes the
date is important, when the "fact" that's important is that the butler
is nearsighted.

Do you mean far-sighted? Near-sighted butlers can read
up close, but have trouble if the calendar is held far away.


If you mean by "proper order" not bringing in a deus ex machina 'fact'
that upsets the dogcart, I agree with you.

I meant precisely the same as Mr. Kingston meant in
his commentary: that keeping facts straight is important.
For instance, mixing up dates has caused the Evans
ratpack considerable difficulties, as has getting their
"facts" in a mess. But their main problem is and has
always been the peculiar selectivity in choosing which
facts to take note of, and which to dishonestly sweep
under the rug.


-- help bot