Using Historic Figures as Characters

[Cthulhu.Science]

Is there a general agreement or understanding on the appropriateness of using historic figures as central characters?

I know there are several models for this:
1. Historic Figure as a new type of hero -- Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer
2. Gore Vidal model of having a fictional character witness and document historic figures doing the things that history records them doing -- with commentary.

But my brain wants to do something different. I want to take three (maybe more) people from the 1600s, that history sees as reasonably honest people, Two of whom have books written about them, and tell the story of how they were Cthulhu Cultists. I envision cultism in the historic gaps. There are societies of descendants for these people. Is this plan a faux pas? So that is what I'm struggling with. Naturally I can tell A story without including them in the action, but that is not what is in my brain. ---

Thanks. Hope I'm not too vague.

 

[BAYLOR]

Is there a general agreement or understanding on the appropriateness of using historic figures as central characters?

I know there are several models for this:
1. Historic Figure as a new type of hero -- Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer
2. Gore Vidal model of having a fictional character witness and document historic figures doing the things that history records them doing -- with commentary.

But my brain wants to do something different. I want to take three (maybe more) people from the 1600s, that history sees as reasonably honest people, Two of whom have books written about them, and tell the story of how they were Cthulhu Cultists. I envision cultism in the historic gaps. There are societies of descendants for these people. Is this plan a faux pas? So that is what I'm struggling with. Naturally I can tell A story without including them in the action, but that is not what is in my brain. ---

Thanks. Hope I'm not too vague.

Why not do such a story with Leonardo di Vinci as the main character have him face of against a resurrected Abdul Alhazred?

 

[Ursa major]

Is this plan a faux pas?

I wouldn't have thought so.

And in any case, they can't sue you, so there's that....

 

[The Judge]

As Ursa indicates, the fact you'd be using long-dead people means that you can't be sued for libel for what you say about them (as long as you're using eg US or UK nationals -- some countries like Russia do have laws which protect the dead from being defamed).

However...

There are societies of descendants for these people.

If these people have descendants living now, and you're suggesting these descendants are part of a cult, then there is the possibility of a defamation claim depending on exactly what these cultists are doing and how serious the allegations are (and how seriously the whole thing is treated). So I'd suggest you make it clear that eg the cult effectively ceased to exist a century or two back, or that not all descendants fell into the cult.

 

[paranoid marvin]

A couple of things I would mention. Having a book which has famous people is one thing, having them as your main characters is another.

You'll have to get to k ow the real peopls really well, so that when you describe their thoughts or actions they appear believable. Which takes me to point two, which us that characters totally contrary to historical records will ask an awful lot from your readers not to break their suspension of disbelief. It's also going to be dificult for famous/public characters to be doing something so surreptitiously as being cult members, so would pretty much rule of royals for example.

Is it really important to have real historical characters than fictional ones? Could you not perhaps have fictional confidants who manipulate famous people into doing things that support their cult?


1600s is a good period to choose, as the power of kings is waning and more power is going to the people.

If you are to choose famous people, it may be worth considering those with shadowy characters (ie those who had relatively unknown/private periods in their lives such as Robert Cecil, Shakespeare and George Villiers (Duke of Buckingham).

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Well. It isn't really libel that I'm worried about. and I didn't have any plans to talk about descendants.
There are several fictional characters involved anyway. My outline keeps getting bigger so I'll have a lot of paring to do.

For some reason my brain was uncertain about the idea.
If I wrote the names, you may have heard of one if you are from New England, the father of the second, and definitely not the third.

So, we'll see where this goes.... Thanks for the response.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

You wont get sued for writing about real 17th Century personalities. In the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Frasier the main character (Flashman) is fictional (in fact borrowed from Tom Brown's Schooldays). Almost everyone else in the books is completely real and generally portrayed as incompetent, caddish, perverted, sadistic, and often all four! It would have been wonderful to see, say, Lord Cardigan's descendents arguing in court that he was not a buffoon, partly responsible for the loss of the Light Brigade in the Crimea. Similarly, I once had a nice chat with Michael Ignatieff the Canadian academic and former politician. I was dying to ask what he thought of the portrayel of his ancestor Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatief as the vilest, most monstrous villain in Fraser's books. But I couldn't quite work it into the conversation.

 

[Swank]

Neal Stephenson's take on a range of historical figures are interesting and hilarious - Newton, MacArthur, Turing, Louis XIV, etc.

I think you're safe.

 

[Steve Harrison]

I don't see a problem in what you propose to do, particularly with characters from 400 years ago.

It can be quite tricky when you use figures closer to the present day. In my current WIP, the last four real Popes play prominent roles, so it has been tricky to weave them into the action while not defaming them or contradicting what is publicly known about them, and I'm also hampered by there being very few 'missing' periods in their lives, as opposed to those of more distantly historic figures. (The novel concludes a few years in the future, so I will be using a fictional Pope for the finale).

The Flashman books (per @Christine Wheelwright's comments) are excellent examples of what can be done, and I would also recommend CJ Sansom's Shardlake series for real (Tudor) characters closer to the time of your story.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Libel and being sued wasn't even on my mind. I was just thinking about whether it was rude to the 17th generation (or whatever) ancestor. And of course it is silly when the question is reflected back at me. Of course the result is a story where the real villains, the perpetrators of the Salem witch trials, are, at least, partially correct.

 

[BAYLOR]

Libel and being sued wasn't even on my mind. I was just thinking about whether it was rude to the 17th generation (or whatever) ancestor. And of course it is silly when the question is reflected back at me. Of course the result is a story where the real villains, the perpetrators of the Salem witch trials, are, at least, partially correct.

Even if using Historical characters , you're writing fiction. You can do anything you want with them.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

I don't see a problem in what you propose to do, particularly with characters from 400 years ago.

It can be quite tricky when you use figures closer to the present day. In my current WIP, the last four real Popes play prominent roles, so it has been tricky to weave them into the action while not defaming them or contradicting what is publicly known about them, and I'm also hampered by there being very few 'missing' periods in their lives, as opposed to those of more distantly historic figures. (The novel concludes a few years in the future, so I will be using a fictional Pope for the finale).

The Flashman books (per @Christine Wheelwright's comments) are excellent examples of what can be done, and I would also recommend CJ Sansom's Shardlake series for real (Tudor) characters closer to the time of your story.

My initial impulse was to take a well known biography, published in the 1700s, and flesh it out. Fill in the gaps that aren't known about the person to explain his miraculous rise from obscurity to fame. As his biographer claims claims that there must have been divine interventional I'd illustrate intervention - indeed.

So, basically an unabridged biography...
sort of like what Chuck Barris did with his autobiography. (Where he claimed that between tapings of The Gong Show he was a CIA operative)

 

[Steve Harrison]

It sounds like you have the perfect premise and set-up. Divine intervention for you, too!