You wrote:
>That's exactly what I pointed out last time. It's called "poetic license."
>You and Glenn want to LIMIT history to one kind of history (VCR,
>journalistic detail). I do not.
May I suggest a distinction. There are two types of writing about history;
there is only one history. There was a Paul Revere who made a ride, but it
was not the ride that Longfellow described. There was one and only one
factual way that Revere took his ride. The descriptions of it can be true,
false, partially true and partially false. Longfellow wrote a partially
true/partially false account. The writing of Longfellow does not in any way,
shape or form affect what actually happened that night long ago.
We do not live in a universe where Paul Revere rode north AND rode south.
Nor do we live in a universe in which Paul Revere was of Chinese ancestry.
No matter how I describe this event there is only one TRUE description.
glenn