In regards to question 2, Valentino is reliable to what he believes happened with his storytelling. For when he is told someone died he does not feel the need to actually check because death seems to surround him. It is understandable that he would not want to see another dead body, for just seeing one dead body in a lifetime is more than enough. But this does not make him reliable in a factual sense because when someone wants to be taken as credible they should have evidence to back that point up (just like in any essay you need specific reliable sources to back up your claim). Valentino may not have seen the need to see for himself that this death had happened, but since most of his audience for his stories have really no idea what happened there is a sense that he may say something and whoever he is telling this to really has no idea if this is fact or fiction. I think that Valentino does believe what he is telling happened, I just think that he needs to provide solid credible evidence to what he says so there is no leftover questions such as why didn’t he check to see that Monynhial had actually died or just decided to move to a different area. For an example, “On the third day he decided to die in the hole, because it was warm there and there were no sounds inside. And he did die that day because he was ready”(160). This shows that a reader may question what Valentino has to say actually happened for if no one looked to see that Monynhial had died how does he know what happened to him? Who told him? But it is a good book with people like President Obama and Angelina Jolie reading this book and recommending it, it seems like most people will not think about credible Sources. But it is also to be taken into fact that this book is said to be fiction instead of non fiction explaining why there aren't credible sources.
I think you're right that people that are celebrities and even the president would cause people to care less about credible sources since they're reading it. I also agree that he doesn't need to check to see if his friend is dead, because death surrounds him. So I'm one of those people that doesn't care about credible sources. Although this book is fiction, some of his embellished stories are factual to someone, somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that he is not totally credible, and many of these stories are likely second hand (or third or fourth). For me, it doesn't really bother me as long as, like Sabrina said, they are "factual to someone, somewhere." I would find it much more bothersome if I thought they were totally made up out of thin air (hopefully they are not). And you are completely right, in pointing out that they did decide to write a work of fiction based on a true story, rather than an actual true story, which says something, too.
ReplyDeleteIn doing so, "writing a work of fiction based on a true story" the reader is expected to believe that everything happened exactly the way the story tells it... but more importantly that those were some of the realities that they faced. In my opinion, even if only 10% of what they said was true would still deeply disturb me and give me a deeper appreciation for my own life. Except for those I know who have come back from war, nobody I know personally has faced hardships of that magnitude.
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