I'll be honest, I've soured on You're Wrong about since listening to their episode on Dissociative Identity Disorder, which they called Multiple Personality Disorder. It hasn't been called that in decades and they seemed to take it as a "fad disorder", rather than discussing what it actually is. For a podcast about misinformation, it was very disappointing. I did enjoy their Dungeons and Dragons episode, though I'm not sure if I ever finished it. I think that one's very recent. There's also one about Go Ask Alice which is quite good.
. This book is nonfiction. The book is very good, although - there is a lot of detail. Human memory doesn't usually work like that. It makes me wonder if bits were made up - and how the writers handled it when they were presented with contradicting stories.
I haven't read this book, so I can't comment on it at all. However, I will say that sometimes you do wonder what's been fabricated. "On October 5th, 1984, my mom was wearing her purple dress when my dad came home from work. They immediately started arguing about taxes, which turned into a bigger argument about Ronald Reagan. I turned off The Cosby Show and went to bed." Maybe the author has an eidetic memory and/or was a very perceptive six year old, but I still find it a little suspect. My guess would be that the author filled in what was likely, given the time and what they remember about their family. (Mom hated Reagan, Dad loved Reagan, Author loved The Cosby Show.)
That said, I took a few nonfiction writing courses in college, and we were indeed told we could make some generalizations, or fill in what we knew as adults.
...my point is, I do think embellishment is a thing. Because you're right, human memory doesn't work like that. I remember things from the past, but while I do have one or two random memories I "shouldn't" have that have been corroborated, most of them aren't so neatly contained.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-10-05 02:15 pm (UTC). This book is nonfiction. The book is very good, although - there is a lot of detail. Human memory doesn't usually work like that. It makes me wonder if bits were made up - and how the writers handled it when they were presented with contradicting stories.
I haven't read this book, so I can't comment on it at all. However, I will say that sometimes you do wonder what's been fabricated. "On October 5th, 1984, my mom was wearing her purple dress when my dad came home from work. They immediately started arguing about taxes, which turned into a bigger argument about Ronald Reagan. I turned off The Cosby Show and went to bed." Maybe the author has an eidetic memory and/or was a very perceptive six year old, but I still find it a little suspect. My guess would be that the author filled in what was likely, given the time and what they remember about their family. (Mom hated Reagan, Dad loved Reagan, Author loved The Cosby Show.)
That said, I took a few nonfiction writing courses in college, and we were indeed told we could make some generalizations, or fill in what we knew as adults.
...my point is, I do think embellishment is a thing. Because you're right, human memory doesn't work like that. I remember things from the past, but while I do have one or two random memories I "shouldn't" have that have been corroborated, most of them aren't so neatly contained.