Recognizable fictional characters must be recorded faithfully from life, not softened

Evidence

In this world, men are not obliged to explain or account for themselves. Creatures endlessly to be placated, they look to mold a woman into a satisfactory, if not perfect, wife. Conrad Fleming seeks to mold Antonia. He is a man of unblemished conceit, immaculate selfishness. Young female readers today may view him with incredulity. They should not. He is faithfully recorded. He is the voice of the day before yesterday, and also the voice of the ages past. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1039

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how faithful recording of repellent real-world male types protects a character’s credibility across generations.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1039
• XREF: connects to: Historical fiction writers must treat dead figures as real living people. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 859; Close sympathy plus ironic distance lets an artist depict characters without contempt — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 418; Fictional renaming can give characters more reality than biographical fidelity would — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 217

Broader Connections

• Close sympathy plus ironic distance lets an artist depict characters without contempt #complicates (0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 418