- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:
Published Letters: 377
Editor's Choice: 15
Yes, few are willing to watch a movie or a tv show with me either. It is, in this culture, okay for a writer or movie-maker to insult your intelligence, but it is not okay to refuse the insult, or to dissect moronic thinking.
And the justification is the same: You're spoiling my enjoyment. But turn the argument around. What about me? I enjoy having a clear idea of how things actually work. That awareness allows me to connect an exponentially greater range of experiences. It may spoil a few scenes in the movies, but it certainly makes life itself more fun.
I love Superman. I just want a Superman whose performances I can buy into.
What, after all, would be the problem with accurate science in narratives? The implied but specious assumption is that scientific accuracy is opposed to good story-telling. Exactly the opposite is true. How can you trust a writer who's sloppy with the facts? Good writers in all traditions have always had a devotion to getting it right.
So long as the story is sufficiently captivating, the scientifically illiterate will never notice. But being accurate AND interesting requires too much effort, study, and attention, I suppose. It requires talent.
