The Thin Line Between Fact and Fiction
The upcoming release of the movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code had me thinking a little bit about the whole interleaving-facts-and-fiction thing. OK, here I go: remember this is going to be a little weird.
In the book, Dan Brown mixes fact with fiction so deftly. But why should it be restricted to a book? (And I’m not talking about the make-a-movie-out-of-it sense.) As in, we get information from so many sources: books, newspapers, television, the Web, friends, gossip, etc. How about designing, not a book, but an experience: so everything you see or hear about a particular topic is a mixture of fact and fiction. And somewhere within there, is the author’s skill to embed his own story into history. It’s no longer something you pick up and read, it’s something you experience all the time. Part of the story might unravel itself in newspaper sections (think advertisements, or guest columns), part of the story could be revealed in a television episode, and some happenings are covered in a magazine. It’s the same storyline, same timeline, it’s just not restricted to a single medium. And it’s no longer separate from fact: as events happen in the real world, the author (or rather, the designer) will incorporate them into the developing story.
Perhaps it could also be a community-designed experience: if you want to influence the story in a certain way (even a very minor way), you could do that. Like one of those detective books, “turn to page 46 if you think X is the killer.” One could even do some backward time-travel weirdness by sneaking around and editing web log entries, or publishing two alternative versions simultaneously in a magazine and a newspaper and throwing people off on a wild goose chase to figure out what happened.
The next generation in entertainment? Or just a crazy blog entry? You be the judge! 
Hi,
Let me grab my keyboard to give you my feeling about your idea.
This is no new idea, think about movies like [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/][b=the game][/b][/url], but it is worth thinking a bit about it.
I think it is the responsibility of the guy who invents such an entertainment to also invent a border to it, and a clear way out. Have you noticed the whole mess about da vinci code? Even if people know that they are sitting in a cinema, they still believe, because they have so much comfort and ease in their life, that life has become “spicefree”, no surprise, no adventure, after all no fun. Imagine if you start taking virtuality to the mass media… People will start wars on allegations… Nobody will be able to establish the truth again, even the artist…
This is probably one of the pillar of the “entertainment society”. As I see it, what you are suggesting is to create another reality which is unreal, that is not physically dangerous, but still thrilling…
This clearly makes me shiver… I want my real life to be entertaining and strive to throw away all kind of bullshit tailored to make me spend my boring material life in an entertaining way!
Hope this was not too long a comment..
Cheers
Comment by Antoine — June 1, 2006 @ 3:36 am
The reason the movie created such an uproar is because it reaches much wider audience and easily influences people. Many people do not read books as often. I have reservations on mixing fact and fiction in a movie. Obviously, they should have the usual disclaimers but then movie experience is disturbed.
This goes with news agencies as well. For example CNN and FoxNews always have some commentary either from the anchors or experts (supposedly) with any news item. They influence the people quite a bit. Should that be allowed ? If yes, how much is ok ?
Comment by Pradeep Padala — May 20, 2007 @ 12:29 pm