Who, where and why not

Søren Krarup Olesen raptus at stofanet.dk
Sat Nov 30 13:12:36 CET 2002


DAVE + STEFAN + ...:

 >>> I am sorry to tell you Mads, but Scrooge is an imaginary
 >>> character. Therefore he can not be part of any FACTS! True or
 >>> Untrue!
 >>
 >> Wouldn't that mean that *everything* is untrue?

That's a rather philosophical question, Stefan ;-)

 >> Everything has been invented by someone (e.g. by Barks or Rosa),
 >> but it hasn't happened in the real world. So all of that is lies!

and Dave explains:

 > Yes, it's all untrue.  No, it's not all lies.  It's fiction.   There
 > is a clear distinction between the two.
 >
 > Of course you all realize this.  So why am I stating the obvious?

Agreed (of course). It surely is pure fiction all of it, however, some
stories appear less fictional than others. Not that they took place in
the real world at all--I wouldn't take it that far. The point is that
certain stories contain a pseudo historical message, which apparantly
lures both writers and fans of those writers to believe, that the
message must be respected and maintained in other stories. If the
message is disobeyed in some other story, some would claim that the
story provides "untrue facts", especially if this second story *itself*
contains pseudo history which clashes with the first one.

Thus, it's merely a matter of what you believe in and not about what you
know happened. (Before I start sounding too religious, I'd better end
the sentence with "in this case!" :-)

If someone is convinced that Soberville McDuck was step cousin to Fethry
and Walrustitty Goose was Gus' half mother-in-law, then that's fine with
me, but it only holds while reading the story. Example:

I read a Janet Gilbert story the other day, where Donald was turned into
a monster, and without spoiling the plot, he Donald still is a monster
in the final panel. Now, the question is, what happened to him later? I
have checked the date of the story, and in more recent stories he looks
perfectly normal. Why? Simple. Because the very same time the story
ends, then the reset button is pressed and the entire Disney comics
universe rebooted.

I do enjoy continuity (or rather "themes") of stories though (we usually
call them "subseries" in Inducks), like the "Cronicle", mostly drawn by
Strobl. Incarnated Barks and Rosa fans would probably ask how on Earth
Scrooge has time to spend all day in the editorial office running a
newspaper.

The answer would be: Scrooge is obsessed with earning money. Running a
newspaper is profitable business, hence Scrooge spends as much time
possible in that office in order to earn as much as possible. Anyways,
those stories end too, and on the following page Scrooge would probably
be back in his bin counting money. It's always like that and I happen to
like it.

Søren





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