posted by Neil
Over on Twitter, the 1B1T (One Book, One Twitter) book club has begun doing its world-wide-book-clubby thing. They are reading AMERICAN GODS and talking about it a chapter at a time, using hashtags to make the discussion process easier -- Chapter One is #1b1t_1c, Chapter Two is #1b1t_2c, and you can see the immediate conversation over at (for example) http://tweetgrid.com/search?q=%231b1t_1c .
I've been dipping in and dipping out since it started - not even trying to follow the discussions, just pleased and impressed with the depth and intelligence that people are bringing to the conversation.
But I just hit a strange ethical dilemma.
I followed a link on, um, something in American Gods, to its Wikipedia entry. And read an entry about something that I'd made up (because it fitted, because it worked, and because I didn't think anyone would mind) that cited a reference book that talked about the thing I made up. The reference book was written some years after American Gods was published.
The last time, some years ago, I'd checked the Wikipedia entry, it was accurate, and noted that the thing in question had started in American Gods. Now all reference to me and to American Gods has gone. It has, after all, a reference book link. And something that I made up has become, to all intents and purposes, a fact.
I pondered fixing it. I'd need to do a blog entry clarifying exactly what I made up and what I didn't in this thing, to allow someone to do a fix, so they could link to that.
But really, there's probably a very useful lesson in there somewhere about what facts are. And I quite like the idea that something that I made up has wandered out of a book and into the real world. It seems very appropriate for that particular book, as well.
So my ethical question is...
...should I tell? Would you?
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