On 22/10/06, charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
Phil Sandifer wrote
The problem is... well, let's pull up a solid midlist Marvel character - Speedball. 1603 word article. Only 500 words of that pertain to the real world instead of the fictional world of the comics. That's the problem. Fancruft is in many ways a poor choice of terms for this.
Fair point. I think what Phil is saying is like this: people tend to write without 'breaking the fourth wall', in a voice that suspends the disbelief.
I assume this was a reply to me.
While I think it sensible for an article mostly about a fictional character to be about the fictional character within the fictional universe, I agree it is terrible to write an account of this without breaking the fourth wall. It goes without saying that even accounts of fictionalised happenings should always be written in a way appropriate for a generalist encyclopedia.