misattribution grumble
Oct. 4th, 2020 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueFeeling unreasonably low about seeing a friend misattribute a quote to C.S. Lewis that was written this year by nobody famous. This is a feature of the internet, taking something you like and making it seem more powerful by pretending it's from the past. In fairness it is also something people did pre-internet, "discovering" old "lost" books in libraries and estate sales or buried on tablets in their yards. And my friend didn't create the misattribution, just passed it on, and thought it was trustworthy because it was claimed to have been quoted by a bishop.
But it was obviously not C.S. Lewis. It used the phrase "restore the family unit" which is not a thing C.S. Lewis would ever say. It's contemporary as all hell. Moreover, it doesn't remotely resemble Lewis's point of view. The whole thing is pat and bland in a way the Screwtape Letters aren't. Having Jesus come in and say "this is the right answer, in contrast to all that deviltry" is not something that would ever happen in that book, aside from the fact that it doesn't happen in that book. There is a section about the usefulness to demons of claiming Jesus said things; I don't think the person who misattributed the quote to C.S. Lewis had this in mind. I don't think they knew very much about C.S. Lewis.
A websearch immediately brought me to pages by both Snopes and Reuters with the correct attribution.
This is not dissimilar from an exchange I had earlier this year with another friend who posted an earnest quote about good customer service, misattributed to Douglas Adams, which actually came from an old Mormon circular (which was at least written by someone named Adams). Or my reaction as a teen when people passed around that "always wear sunscreen" speech thinking they were quoting Kurt "death is inevitable so I'm going to smoke a lot of cigarettes" Vonnegut.
I should not be so crushed every time, but it makes me confused about what people like about writing, or understand from what has been written. I know what it's like to love an author but also disagree with parts of their viewpoint; I don't know what it's like to miss what they're saying or how they say it. Every time I see it happen I feel like I have been dropped into the middle of a woods. This leaves aside the way it erases the actual author, who is often female and self-publishing.
I thought we lived in a society. Instead I have woken to a room where everyone talks gibberish and has melt faces and the walls are fisheye.
But it was obviously not C.S. Lewis. It used the phrase "restore the family unit" which is not a thing C.S. Lewis would ever say. It's contemporary as all hell. Moreover, it doesn't remotely resemble Lewis's point of view. The whole thing is pat and bland in a way the Screwtape Letters aren't. Having Jesus come in and say "this is the right answer, in contrast to all that deviltry" is not something that would ever happen in that book, aside from the fact that it doesn't happen in that book. There is a section about the usefulness to demons of claiming Jesus said things; I don't think the person who misattributed the quote to C.S. Lewis had this in mind. I don't think they knew very much about C.S. Lewis.
A websearch immediately brought me to pages by both Snopes and Reuters with the correct attribution.
This is not dissimilar from an exchange I had earlier this year with another friend who posted an earnest quote about good customer service, misattributed to Douglas Adams, which actually came from an old Mormon circular (which was at least written by someone named Adams). Or my reaction as a teen when people passed around that "always wear sunscreen" speech thinking they were quoting Kurt "death is inevitable so I'm going to smoke a lot of cigarettes" Vonnegut.
I should not be so crushed every time, but it makes me confused about what people like about writing, or understand from what has been written. I know what it's like to love an author but also disagree with parts of their viewpoint; I don't know what it's like to miss what they're saying or how they say it. Every time I see it happen I feel like I have been dropped into the middle of a woods. This leaves aside the way it erases the actual author, who is often female and self-publishing.
I thought we lived in a society. Instead I have woken to a room where everyone talks gibberish and has melt faces and the walls are fisheye.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-04 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-04 06:48 pm (UTC)I am offended on behalf of Screwtape.