# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/81 "2014-04-21T03:49:11Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Since all the books I knew about have already been mentioned, I’ll just throw out “Modern Family” the TV show, because of those little interviews they do in each episodes with the “characters”, it is presented as if these are real people we are following who are giving their opinions of day-to-day life and other people and such, even though we all know they are just actors. Would that count as a false document? > > How about any mockumentary, like This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, etc? “The Office” is a mock-documentary TV series. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/82 "2014-04-21T13:11:37Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t think this is right. It was easy enough to publish under a pseudonym, and while there are plenty of naive people out there, I doubt it would have been widely believed that all those epistolary novels were the actual published letters of real people. I think presenting novels in the form of a diary or collection of letters was just a device intended to make the story seem more realistic, sort of like the documentary format of _The Office_. I didn’t mean to imply that readers were any more fooled by the conceit than viewers of _The Office_ today are, but that was the conceit at the time. Maybe conceit is too strong a word even. It was the fashion with early English novels to present them (often) as though they were something other than the creative storytelling of the author. Again, anyone this made a fool of deserved the name. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/83 "2014-04-21T16:26:04Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I’m a big fan, mostly, of Gerald Durrell; but it’s only in the past few days that I’ve heard of his _The Entrance_ (I happened recently, to do a search for items about Durrell on TSD, and in the course of that, found several references to it). As alluded-to above, horror is the very opposite of the kind of material usually associated with this writer ! > > I feel moved to look out this story… > [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > It’s in _The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium_. It may not be as terrifying as I’m making it out to be, because I haven’t read it in a long time (I might go get myself a copy, too!), but I still remember the spike of sheer horror when reality starts to break down. What happens is such a small, almost innocuous thing in itself, but AAAIEEEEE. Thanks. Mm – Amazon here I come, I think… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/84 "2014-04-22T16:06:49Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Since all the books I knew about have already been mentioned, I’ll just throw out “Modern Family” the TV show, because of those little interviews they do in each episodes with the “characters”, it is presented as if these are real people we are following who are giving their opinions of day-to-day life and other people and such, even though we all know they are just actors. Would that count as a false document? > > How about any mockumentary, like This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, etc? I’ve only been watching _Modern Family_ for about two months, and mostly on USA, which does not seem to be airing them in any order; I’ve yet to see the premiere. So I have a question. Is there supposedly an actual film crew following around the Pritchetts & Dunphys? Because from what I can see, the instances in which the characters appear to be speaking to the camera are primarily internal monologues as on Ally McBeal, Scrubs, and that show with Willow Rosenberg, Nick Andopolis, and Doogie Houser whose title I have sworn never to utter, write, or type again. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/85 "2014-04-22T16:15:30Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#): > > Sorta counts? It _definitely_ counts! 😃 > > On that note: have any other Doper Tolkien fans (apart from me) ever wondered how in-universe Tolkien even _translated_ languages he knew nothing about? Tolkien was, obviously, a genius. But he DIDN’T know “nothing” about Quenya, Sindarin, Westron, and Hobbitish. All are clearly Indo-European languages. The Elvish tongues are ancestral to Italic, while the Mannish tongues are Germanic. What DO they teach in these schools? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/86 "2014-04-22T23:46:07Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’ve only been watching _Modern Family_ for about two months, and mostly on USA, which does not seem to be airing them in any order; I’ve yet to see the premiere. So I have a question. Is there supposedly an actual film crew following around the Pritchetts & Dunphys? Because from what I can see, the instances in which the characters appear to be speaking to the camera are primarily internal monologues as on Ally McBeal, Scrubs, and that show with Willow Rosenberg, Nick Andopolis, and Doogie Houser whose title I have sworn never to utter, write, or type again. I’ve been a pretty regular _Modern Family_ watcher, and AFAIK there’s never been any indication that they’re actually being filmed by a documentary crew and there are many scenes where this would be implausible/impossible. The “confessional” scenes seem to be just a device. I don’t think they’re supposed to be internal monologues though, as they sometimes involve two characters talking to the camera together and interacting with each other. These scenes also always seem to be set in the appropriate characters’ living room, regardless of where the main action is taking place. So I think it’s supposed to be more like they’re telling “you” (a friend or relative) the story of what happened soon afterward. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/87 "2014-04-23T14:10:15Z")
The tag ending of _Iron Man 3_ shows that Stark is retelling the events of the movie to a dozing Bruce Banner. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/88 "2014-04-23T14:13:11Z")
As an inversion, there’s _The Usual Suspects_, which leaves the viewer wondering how much, if any, of the story they’ve seen is an accurate account. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290/89 "2014-04-23T14:43:56Z")
The BBC series _Yes, Minister_ and _Yes, Prime Minister_ were published in book form as diaries compiled by Jim Hacker after his retirement to the House of Lords, with editorial comments by the real authors. It also included newspaper clippings, internal memos (often with handwritten notes on the side from Sir Humphrey, a running joke being that he’d write that way even on a blank page), and interviews with Bernard (who it is revealed eventually became Cabinet Secretary!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-stories-using-the-false-document-technique-whether-well-or-poorly/686290.md?page=4)