Talk:Narratives of Empire

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Historical Revisionism[edit]

Hello, are these novels considered to be "revisionist" in any way, or, historically accurate? 76.254.84.27 (talk) 20:27, 19 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

All history writing can be considered "revisionist" to some extent. The historian (or novelist) cannot help but write from a particular point of view. Historical novels, unlike straight history writing, allow the author to "fill in the blanks" in a historical story where historical evidence is ambiguous or does not exist. A big part of the fun is attempting to separate the history from the fiction. Since it is a novel, there are no references to sources to help in this task. Vidal is one of the most conscientious historical novelists but also one of the most ambitious and controversial. His extensive use of historical persons as characters in these novels challenges the reader to learn more about them before accepting or rejecting Vidal's portrayals. For the Narratives of Empire novels, that could involve a lifetime of study. It also helps to know a bit about Vidal and his views of American political history. Fortunately, unlike most novelists, he has presented his personal views in a large and well-respected (at least until recently) body of non-fiction writing, especially essays. WCCasey (talk) 16:34, 5 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]