Reading Comprehension

PT154 · S3 · P2 · Q7 Literary Falsehoods

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Passage A The path a historical novelist has to tread is clearly beset by dangers.

Topic

The necessity and complexity of "lying" (inventing or altering facts) in historical novels and autobiographical writing.

Framework

Present Debate (both passages wrestle with the tension between truth and invention in writing about the past).

Main Point

Both passages argue that factual inaccuracies—what they call "lies"—are sometimes necessary and even desirable for writers of historical novels (Passage A) or autobiographies (Passage B), as these "lies" can enhance narrative, character, and emotional truth. However, both also express that there's a line between productive invention and unintentional errors or misleading distortions. - Most Valuable Sentences: - Passage A: (End of P1) - Passage B: (P3)

P1A: The Dilemma for Historical Novelists

Writers of historical novels face a challenge: being completely accurate means unreadable or dull books, so they must invent dialogue and details to bring characters to life, which means "telling lies" to some extent.

P2A: Distinguishing Lies from Mistakes

It's important to differentiate between intentional "lies" (deliberate creative liberties) and accidental mistakes (unforgivable inaccuracies). Good historical fiction uses constructive "lies" to serve the story; mistakes harm it.

P3A: Lying Done Well (Shakespeare as Model)

Not all lies are acceptable—some are too obvious or off-putting—but well-done lies are necessary. Shakespeare intentionally distorted facts for emotional impact, which made his plays memorable.

7.

Which one of the following is a central topic of each passage?

  1. the obligation to suppress creativity

    Opposite: obligation to suppress

    This is pretty much the opposite of what both authors were talking about. They were both permitting if not encouraging "creative" lies. Neither was saying that writers are obliged to suppress creativity. That sounds like the view of someone insisting on accuracy at all costs.

    2% picked this

  2. the critical distinction between intentional

    Fails B: Only Passage A

    Passage B never discussed the distinction between a lie and a mistake.

    5% picked this

  3. Correct

    the essential role of falsehood

    Why this is right

    This wording is hard to love; we'd need to research in both passages how we can be okay with the strength of essential role, but the gist is right. Both authors were condoning if not encouraging lying (both historical fiction and autobiography depict real past events). The last sentence of Passage A's first paragraph says that "the creation of good narrative requires the telling of lies". The first sentence of Passage B's third paragraph says that "lying is all but inescapable for an artistically coherent autobiography".

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    80% picked this

  4. the impossibility of representing the

    Too Strong: impossibility

    Neither author was saying that accuracy is impossible. They were saying that going strictly by the facts might leave characters two-dimensional (historical fiction) or provide the objective feel of a biography (whereas autobiographies should convey the author's subjectivity).

    8% picked this

  5. the ethical problems posed by

    Fails A: Only Passage B

    The last paragraph of Passage B seems somewhat tormented and explicitly says the author's position is "unethical". But Passage A never uses wording like that. It discusses the effect of fabrication in terms of perceptions of whether a historical novel is a good / bad novel, but not whether it is right / wrong (ethical terminology) to fabricate.

    5% picked this

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