Granted that I don't know much about programing for users, your stance there seems perfectly reasonable. I don't think the analogy to stories works, though, possibly because the point of stories isn't using a pattern to complete a task: the pattern is, to an extent, the point. (Exceptions being allegory and other stories that do have a educational/pragmatic purpose, but now I'm distracting from my own already rambling comment, here.)
So: the story should be whatever it has to be, and presentation being very firmly tied up in that, I think the issue of what details to include or exclude is just as sticky as that of any other inclusion. Doubtless there are inclusions/exclusions that will make certain people more comfortable, but an author can't reliably predict those, and ultimately can't please all their readership, so it's a futile sort of effort anyway. Might as well go with whatever feels best for the story.
That being said: personally I do think there's something essentially problematic and off-putting about portraying someone else's culture as essentially an unknown. Frankly I think if an author has to go out of their way to point something out – like family being valued more than personal ambitions – in the narration, they're probably doing it wrong anyway.
So: so far as I know, you bend to the user. But you expect the reader to bend to the story (unless the story benefits by being bent).
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Date: 11 Jun 2011 11:35 pm (UTC)So: the story should be whatever it has to be, and presentation being very firmly tied up in that, I think the issue of what details to include or exclude is just as sticky as that of any other inclusion. Doubtless there are inclusions/exclusions that will make certain people more comfortable, but an author can't reliably predict those, and ultimately can't please all their readership, so it's a futile sort of effort anyway. Might as well go with whatever feels best for the story.
That being said: personally I do think there's something essentially problematic and off-putting about portraying someone else's culture as essentially an unknown. Frankly I think if an author has to go out of their way to point something out – like family being valued more than personal ambitions – in the narration, they're probably doing it wrong anyway.
So: so far as I know, you bend to the user. But you expect the reader to bend to the story (unless the story benefits by being bent).