Reply to Subject of famous/infamous New Yorker "Cat Person" short story revealed

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Writers who claim that it’s normal to borrow so many true-life details that readers can identify the actual people on which characters were based are probably crappy writers. It’s not difficult to develop characters that aren’t obviously based on real people. And it’s the ethical thing to do. [/quote]

Nope. Just ask anyone who ever knew Philip Roth. It's just how it is. Except maybe, like, pure sci-fi fantasy that is all plot and no real character development.

This doesn't mean people have to like it when they're the one who gets their lives minced into fiction. Just, it's normal.[/quote]

If it’s normal, then the industry has a serious problem. Again, we aren’t talking about simply using a real-life person for inspiration. That’s fine as long as they aren’t easily identified. What happened here is very different. [/quote]

The "industry" (art?) has a million problems, but this isn't one of them. This is how the sausage gets made. Philip Roth was a good example upthread. You think the people he ripped off straight from life were always thrilled about it?[/quote]

I am the one who brought up Roth. And I think it can be both a problem, and normal. I have had a few novels published and I always cringe at the thought of the people whose lives I've "borrowed" from in them reading what I've written. But then I go and do it anyway. And I hope that overall, it will have been worth it - for me, for people, but almost certainly not for the people who are turned into characters. I've never had the level of success anywhere near Cat Person - I think my novels have sold a combined 6,000 copies, not exactly bestseller stuff - but I do recognize both that this is very normal (nothing to be shocked by) and also very hurtful for the people whose lives are cut up and used. I don't know how you thread this needle, if you both want novels to exist in the world and also want to protect people from writers doing that to them. I guess like this - someone writes the story, the person whose life was used for the story then gets their turn to say what happened. 
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This is fair. I’m one of the PPs who knows a ton of writers but can’t claim it for myself. [b]The ultra-defensive flinty quality of some self-proclaimed writers here is just lame as all hell. [/b]The discussion got off the rails publicly because some writers, some of whom have sold well, lost their shit and acted as if the Slate essayist was out of pocket for replying or reacting or daring to publish, and that, my friends, is some major horseshit. [/quote]

This is the part that I find staggering. I have an ex who wrote and published something that included details about an incident that involved both of us (short story not a novel) and I am glad he changed identifying details about me. Obviously, some very close friends knew it was me but people who were more casual friends or either of us didn't recognize me. 
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