skygiants | (no subject)

A few months ago, somebody -- was it you,

plinythemammaler? -- recommended me Monica Ali's Untold Story on the theory that its premise is very weird and it reads a bit like a Gothic.

...and both of these things are true! (Well, more like a noir than a Gothic, I would argue, but the point stands.) This book is basically ... a canon-divergent AU RPF fanfic about Princess Di? (The princess in question is technically not named but the surrounding references are very pointed.) What if, the premise goes, Princess Di did not die in a car crash ... but instead recruited a lovelorn assistant who was conveniently dying of brain cancer to help her fake her own death on a boat .... and attempted to build a new life for herself as Mysteriously Beautiful Lydia in a small American town in the middle of nowhere? WHAT IF. Maybe she could be happy, working at a dog shelter among a circle of aggressively ordinary people who love her just for who she is despite her many, many secrets! OR maybe the paparazzi will once again tear it all apart!

Honestly, if there was a 1940s noir film with this premise, I would probably eat it up with a spoon (especially the ending, in which Lydia comes this close to murdering the obsessive photographer who's uncovered her secret, but instead gets her aggressively ordinary housewife friends to outwit him and send him on his way so that she can maintain the life in which she's more or less content. Great! Good for them!)

As the book that it is -- well, honestly, it helped me to clarify for me where my lines of discomfort lie in reading works of fiction about real people. Princess Di died ... wow, 23 years ago, which is, in fact, a long time ago, but is nonetheless well within my memory. If the book had been about someone who died 43 years ago, it might well have fallen outside the scope of my sensitivity; if I was ten years younger, I might have no problem with it at all. But for me, all through, I couldn't shake the feeling of 'too soon?? TOO SOON.' People can be dead a little longer before we start writing fictional fix-it fic of their lives.

Threaded | Flat

Honestly, if there was a 1940s noir film with this premise, I would probably eat it up with a spoon

Agreed. It could have starred Grace Kelly and produced a whole weird wave of irony-conspiracy in hindsight of her life, as pre-1963 assassination thrillers became paranoid and ghostly in the wake of the death of JFK.

I think there's also possibly an element of "How much do I already know about this real person?" that affects the comfort level?

Like in your summary here, I was thinking "okay but does Lydia have a gorgeous Egyptian husband? Because otherwise it's not canon compliant enough" and it turns out that what I really ship is Diana/someone she actually chooses.

I feel like.... if someone has immediate family still alive you probably shouldn't write fix-it fic of their life. That seems like it could be deeply upsetting.