Doc Brite explains

Quote of the day:

New Orleans writer Poppy Z. Brite on communications with a New York editor regarding a manuscript:

" [M]y editor finds it [a detail about how things are done in New Orleans] implausible [...] To me, this is nothing more or less than business as usual as I have observed it [...]

I'm not going to depict things inaccurately in order to make them more plausible to non-New Orleanians, [...] The trick, I think, is to make the reader understand that New Orleans itself is a wholly implausible place. " (emphasis added)

This sort incomprehension and disbelief at my home town by those in larger supposedly more sophisticated cities of thing comes up all too often. Local writers (not just fiction), researchers, producers, etc. often have their horror stories. This is why "Confederacy of Dunces" wasn't published while John Kennedy Toole was still alive. I don't think I've heard the challenge summarized so well before though. Thanks, docbrite!