Contents of blog copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2023
I've been gone a while. I started reading fanfiction to escape and I got sucked in an abyss.

I have no idea if someone else is hosting similar challenges. I just grabbed some of what I have hosted before.

Here's to a happy year of great reading
Jan2023: Not much has changed. Writing a fanfiction now O_o as well as reading but I bought 7 new books in December and hope to get those read soon. Crossing fingers about adding challenges (late!)

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Just how life-like is fiction?

Sometimes a book draws me in so well that when I finish reading, it takes a bit for me to come back to myself.

I often tell people, "one of the books I read had a situation like that and the characters..."

Or maybe, "my knowledge is only as good as the author's research but..."

Now I'm reading a book that begins in Seattle's waterfront. The main character lives on a boat in "what used to be a shantyown of makeshift craft, most of which were seemingly kept afloat by only their dock lines, were being run off by multilevel, built-to-the-hilt, wall-to-wall floating condos....Seattle's new houseboats were anything but boats; the new generations of occupants were anything but boat people." As he watches a couple of characters interact, the opinion comes across that the people who were there first, the ones who were born to parents born on the boats didn't think much of the moneied people coming in and pushing them out.

One episode of House Hunters (on HGTV) was looking for a houseboat. Some of those places were eye opening and made me question their seaworthiness.

I know that Walt Disney purchased large tracts of land through several different means so no one would jack up the price until he had what he wanted.

So, I wondered...just how life-like is fiction?

Do the older/longest occupiers of Seattle's waterfront resent the flashy "floating condos"?

Also, this part made me think the book was happening at a more recent year and makes me wonder just how long Seattle's waterfront has been a hip place to live!


copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2012

1 comment:

Heavenly said...

That's really interesting. I think a certain amount of fiction is based on real-life. It's like that old adage--write what you know, but for so many years now, people have been kind of going by the seat of their pants that they've dropped that tenet.

Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Book Dragon's Lair. All books I review are either borrowed, purchased by me, given as a gift, won in some kind of contest, or received in exchange for an honest review.