“Do Better Research Next Time”

A reviewer writes:

“The story was ok, the characters felt kind of sterile to the end. but the worst thing the quasi non-existent research on the places where the story takes place, instead you get served American presumptions about Eastern Germany and Europe.  Dear PJ Fox, even before 1990 cars were a common thing in Prague, even more so later. and There Is No Such Thing as a so called “Modern Cinema Building” from the “communist” past in Dresden. First, no communism; Second, the cinema in question is probably the so called “round cinema” (round cinema) in the city center. It Should not be so hard finding this out over the internet, Should it? There are even people living in/coming from Those above Mentioned cities, WHO You Could ask.”

To which I reply: first, it’s called an unreliable narrator.

And, second, please open a book.

You first learn about Dresden, and Prague, from the perspective of a teenaged American with a limited education.  She describes things as she sees them; and no, she doesn’t have much of an appreciation for communist-era architecture.  And yes, cars do occupy a different role in German life (which is what she’s remarking on).  Also, you can see a picture of the nonexistent cinema building online, just google it.  But just like the average Amazon reviewer apparently doesn’t know that America–all of America, but especially rural America–really is different from Germany, Belle is a little mystified by her new surroundings.

Just like I’m a little mystified by how anyone could refer to Dresden and “no communism” in the same sentence.  Dresden has recovered somewhat since the bombings of 1944, but East Germany, of which it ultimately became part, was certainly communist.  Belle might not have an encyclopedic knowledge of Germany, past and present–that would be poor writing, if I used a girl from the sticks to teach the reader about a culture that was supposedly completely new to her–but she did pass junior high social studies.

Dresden’s past is discussed, very briefly, in terms of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Perhaps this reader feels I should attend the University of Google for that “myth” as well.  Or maybe she feels that my lack of knowledge is revealed most clearly in my lack of random capitalization and nonsensical punctuation.  For surely those things invoke, like nothing else, respect for one’s fine classical education.

Pictured: a figment of my imagination.

Moreover, a thing can exist, or it cannot.  According to Nagarjuna, “things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.”  He believed, as do modern Buddhist scholars, that nothing truly existed.  In other words, referring to the quote above, whether one perceives a thing as good or bad depends not on some intrinsic quality in that thing but on one’s attitude.  What breakfast to the spider is chaos to the fly.  And thus we return to the concept of an unreliable narrator.  But even in less philosophical terms, there is no such thing as “quasi non-existent.”  Quasi is a compound word of qua and si, from the Latin, meaning “resembling.”  But a thing cannot resemble nothing; nothing has no characteristics to resemble.

Putting aside this person’s grievance that I did not pay her to be my fact checker–or, indeed, copyeditor–I only write about places I’ve been.  It’s interesting, though, the various nationalities, experiences, and education levels attributed to me.  Those who wish to know are free to ask, rather than assuming, as well.  But maybe I could somehow facilitate a meeting between this person and the one who didn’t know where or what India was.  I can only presume that this particular reviewer didn’t read far enough into the book to notice that it portrays an interracial romance, because then she’d have had that to be horrified about, as well.

As this–the history of Dresden, as well as what buildings can be found there–is one of the few things on which my Top New England University and Google can agree, I’ll have to chalk it all up to this disgruntled reader being even younger than I am.

I wonder what part of the States she lives in.