Medical realism

[electricalgwen]

I've complained (elsewhere, quietly) before about the lack of medical realism in a lot of fics. For instance, people in comas have breathing tubes in and, no matter how nice the dramatic effect is, will not be able to suddenly wake up, say "Oh Giles/Buffy/Willow/Spike/whoever, my near-death experience has made me realize we are meant to be together!" and shag right there on the ICU bed.

Obviously this is not a problem unique to fanfiction, though possibly it's exacerbated there by a certain devil-may-care attitude to details. (I'm guilty of that on other fronts - I have only a vague idea of the layout of the Summers' house, the school, or Sunnydale in general, and I don't generally feel it matters enough to spend ages researching, but this may jar more conscientious or canon-savvy readers.)

And of course, Hollywood has medical advisers to help out. But I was intrigued to see this article on MSN today, arguing that inaccurate portrayal of medical events including comas can be harmful by giving people false expectations regarding outcome. (ETA: link removed as is now defunct.)

Comments

[cordelianne.livejournal.com]

Interesting article, thanks for the link. I'm glad to see that House is pretty accurate, even though I don't understand half of the medical stuff. I think that medicine is one of the few areas that can be potentially harmful in that it gives people incorrect perceptions of illness.

The topic of realism in fiction and entertainment is very interesting. I don't think that entertainment has a responsibility to educate people about things or represent something correctly. We should not be getting our important information from entertainment. If someone is, that's their responsibility and they're probably just as likely to take advice from their neighbour who has no knowledge in that area or from another uninformed avenue.

That being said, I know how frustrating is can be to see something so inaccurately represented. One of my big annoyances is the shows about police and the justice system because I think they often grossly misrepresent how effective those institutions are for the people. I believe that they often present an idealized view of how the system could work. But, I also don't think that people who watch necessarily believe that it's the truth, rather they like to watch something be resolved in an hour.

heee! I'm rant-girl today!

Oh, and I was giggling about your comment about fic being unrealistic. Have your read those ones where there's no way in hell they could be in the position it says they are, or they've suddenly switched positions? Oh! That reminds me about how the gay men I know were annoyed about the first sex scene in Brokeback Mountain because of how "inaccurate" it is. I kept trying to remind them that this is "movie sex", which is never that accurate.

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

I agree that entertainment should not necessarily be a source of information - medical, political, or otherwise - or at least, not the sole source. My objections are usually more selfish, in that it throws me out of the flow of a story almost as surely as having Wesley say "Dude!" or using multiple epithets. Or having people "magically" swap positions. I have read the occasional fic where this happens, and often I think the problem (with this and grammar and characterization and many other bad things!) could have been avoided if the author had the guts to use a beta.

I remember reading an interview with some author who was self-deprecatingly commenting on the sex scenes he'd written in his novel. He described how by the time he'd rewritten sections enough times, he had to get someone to look it over because half the time it got shuffled around and confused enough that he'd have someone's pubic hair in the wrong place, or make it sound like he didn't know what went where, which was pretty embarrassing.