# Let's talk about stories using the false document technique, whether well or poorly. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290 "2014-04-16T20:57:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/21 "2014-04-16T23:56:59Z")
Next to Sherlock Holmes, Bram Stoker’s _ **Dracula** _ is probably the best known story in this style in the English language. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/22 "2014-04-16T23:57:45Z")
I think you could put a lot of the Bible in this category, as it’s presented as first-person accounts by prophets (OT) or apostles (NT), but was in reality composed long after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/23 "2014-04-16T23:58:38Z")
David Mitchell’s _Cloud Atlas_ is told in the form of a journal, interrupted by a series of letters, interrupted by a mystery novel, interrupted by a film, interrupted by a recording of an interrogation, interrupted by a spoken tale. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/24 "2014-04-17T01:31:13Z")
silenus mentioned _The Flashman Papers_ already, but I wanted to add that the original novel fooled several US reviewers into thinking it was nonfiction. Alessan mentioned Gene Wolfe, but I’ll add the Latro novels, which include the trick of an academic forward by the “translator”. Robert Graves’ _Claudius_ novels are supposedly secret memoirs by an emperor. I can’t remember any full-length novels by Stephen King that are exclusively made up of false documents, but he does like to use newspaper articles for verisimilitude. His “Survivor Type” short story is in diary form. Brooks’ _World War Z_ is made up of interviews. _The Watchmen_ by Moore, Gibbons, and Higgins not only has newspaper and magazine articles that add historical details for the fictional world, the story is matched to a fictional horror comic. Personally, I like the approach of adding false documents to create a feeling of realism. Frasier’s footnotes add a lot of welcome detail to the Flashman novels, in my opinion, although the happenings are so unlikely the books are kind of campy. King’s use is quite good, and are a part of his strength as an author of making wild weirdness seem like it could have happened to ordinary people in ordinary locations-- other tricks he employs are slang and brand names. While I like Graves and Wolfe very much, I think that the examples I gave were weaker. The passage where Claudius talks about how he’ll ensure that his manuscript will be unearthed in the far future rings false for me. The Latro books are excellent, my favorites of Wolfe’s books, but the claim that they were unearthed did nothing for me. By the third novel, the author claiming that another manuscript was miraculously found was too much of a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/25 "2014-04-17T02:39:16Z")
Two examples. First, the one I’m reading now with some students: the stupendously rip-roaring children’s book **The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle**. It’s the main character’s memoir, and she repeatedly mentions that it was based on the extensive diary she kept during a fateful sea journey. If you have the slightest interest in children’s novels and/or nautical tales, check it out. Second, a novel similar to, though less accessible (and IMO better) than _World War Z_, is Le Guin’s **Always Coming Home**. Like WWZ, it’s a collection of anthropological records. Always Coming Home is the work of an anthropologist who studied a tribal culture living in coastal California some 100,000 years in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/26 "2014-04-17T03:13:57Z")
_The Princess Bride_ is presented as a digest of a scholarly book. _El mecanoscripte del segon origen_ (Mechanoscript of the second origin), a science fiction novel written in Catalan which has recently been filmed (Fernando Trueba’s final work) is presented as the protagonist’s journal and has an afterword from a scholar talking about it as a very old book. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/27 "2014-04-17T03:17:13Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Tons of early English novels were written this way. The Moonstone. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/28 "2014-04-17T03:21:12Z")
_A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_, which I’m currently reading, is done this way. Twain meets the Yankee on a tour of a castle in England, and gathers that he has a tale to tell; after suitable persuasion of the liquid variety, the Yankee produces a manuscript copy of his adventures, which Twain shares with us, the reader. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/29 "2014-04-17T03:22:05Z")
Not the _whole_ thing, but Stephen King’s debut novel _Carrie_ is heavily interspersed with faux-military and -governmental reports after the fact, to give it a touch of verisimilitude and (in King’s own words) to stretch it into more respectable novel length. Funny thing is, it totally works. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/30 "2014-04-17T04:19:16Z")
“The Documents in the Case” by Dorothy L. Sayers ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/31 "2014-04-17T06:42:24Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > That OP _was_ long, wasn’t it? 😉 Blush. No, I just tend to rush through things… ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/32 "2014-04-17T10:53:11Z")
A few of Heinlein’s juveniles are presented this way. Both _Time for the Stars_ and _Podkayne of Mars_ purport to be diaries written by the protagonists. In the first, the author comments on the journal writing process and in the second the annoying younger sibling writes hidden messages in the diary that the reader is privy to. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/33 "2014-04-17T12:40:23Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Asimov collected a bunch of stories in epistolary form in anthologies called Space Mail and Space Mail II Now that I have a bit more time to post “Flowers for Algernon” Daniel Keyes Moran (diaries) “Secret Unattainable” A. E. Van Vogt (memos, etc.) “Computers Don’t Argue” Gordon Dickson (memos, letters, etc.) “macs” Terry Bisson (interview answers (but not the questions)) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/34 "2014-04-17T13:01:55Z")
_The Anderson Tapes_ is terrific, since the gimmick is that various low-lifes are each under half-assed surveillance, such that the reader can follow the intercepted dialogue as to just how the entire heist is being planned but any individual wiretapper only gets a small and misleading piece of the puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/35 "2014-04-17T13:51:49Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > I can’t remember any full-length novels by Stephen King that are exclusively made up of false documents, but he does like to use newspaper articles for verisimilitude. His “Survivor Type” short story is in diary form. This may not qualify exactly based on the OP, but King did write one book which is 80 percent a retelling of a story: _The Wind Through the Keyhole_. The vast majority of the book is a character telling a story within a story. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/36 "2014-04-17T14:07:43Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > This may not qualify exactly based on the OP, but King did write one book which is 80 percent a retelling of a story: _The Wind Through the Keyhole_. The vast majority of the book is a character telling a story within a story. So is _Wizard and Glass_. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/37 "2014-04-17T14:21:58Z")
Emergence, by David R. Palmer, is written as the diary of a girl surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. One of my favorite SF novels. Something that comes close to this idea happens in movies, where the bulk of the movie is presented as you would expect, and then ends with a voice-over which makes it all sound like it was intended to be a narrative: Terminator, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/38 "2014-04-17T14:22:16Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > So is _Wizard and Glass_. That’s an even better example … something like 95 percent of that one is a character telling a story. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/39 "2014-04-17T14:28:48Z")
The diary of one protagonist makes up a good chunk of Gone Girl. Spoilers follow: Not only are we reading her diary, but is a diary that has been carefully faked in order to frame him. A false document in every way. ---
**Author:** ![Srsly\_Dad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@Srsly\_Dad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Srsly_Dad)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/40 "2014-04-17T14:30:56Z")
Technically doesn’t \*The Canterbury Tales \*use this device also the stories are related as part of a story telling contest during a journey. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290.md?page=3)