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. 
[/quote]

My husband was a "character" in one of his college friend's novels. I think the character gets murdered, ha ha!

On this short story, I get the distinct impression that Roupenian (short story) wrote it as a revenge piece against Charles, but she didn't anticipate it being so widely read. Annnnddd I feel like I have just come up with a great idea for a short story.[/quote]

I have the same impression regarding what Roupenian intended, and that her phrasing of “encounter” was meant to suggest to Nowicki that Charles did something borderline criminal during their relationship via the use of “encounter.”  Honestly, my impression of Roupenian is quite negative at this point, and she IMO speaks and writes in the language of the passive-aggressive coward. [/quote]

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