Uptown Resident comments:

Re: the broken glass metaphor [in the Rolling Stone gang rape article]. Charlie Kaufman alludes to how cliche it is in “Adaptation” by having Charlie’s dumb twin, Donald, use broken mirrors as a visual motif in his screenplay [The 3]. Donald is following the advice of Bob the screenwriting instructor that an “Image System greatly increases the complexity of an aesthetic emotion.” DONALD

Cool! Hey, my script’s going amazing! Right now I’m working out an Image

System. Bob calls it an invaluable asset. Because of my multiple personality theme, I’ve chosen the motif of broken mirrors to show my protagonist’s fragmented self. Bob teaches that an Image System greatly increases the complexity of an aesthetic emotion.

By the way, the movie “Adaptation” is another one of these works that play around with the line between fiction and fact: Charlie Kaufman is employed to write a screenplay out of Susan Orlean’s nonfiction New Yorker article about orchids. He winds up writing himself into his adaptation as the main character, and invents for himself an identical twin brother Donald who has the opposite personality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the reporter was interested in coming up with an article that could be adapted into a powerful movie screenplay. And perhaps that urge, whether or unconscious or conscious, gets reflected in the various literary and cinematic allusions I see in the article to famous works that play around with the line between fact and fiction. Or maybe I’m just reading to much into this.

I know a lot of people think everybody should just concentrate on a Just-the-Facts-Ma’am Sgt. Joe Friday attitude toward this story, but it’s also worth pointing out the literary techniques that made this article so unquestioned in the mass media from November 19 through November 30.

Knowledge is power.