Diana Gabaldon on Episode 303 and the Endless Frank Debate (SPOILERS!)
Diana Gabaldon made some interesting comments on the Compuserve Books and Writers Community today, about what I've come to refer to as the Endless Frank Debate: did Frank have affairs, or didn't he? Was he sleeping with other women while married to Claire, or wasn't he?
I imagine that many of you are saying indignantly, "Of COURSE he cheated on Claire! She certainly thinks he did." But it's not that simple. There's no proof, in the books. Just a lot of circumstantial evidence on both sides. And Claire is hardly an unbiased, impartial observer.
I've said before that I hope Diana Gabaldon never actually gives us a Definitive Answer to this question, in the books. I much prefer the ambiguity, because it generates so much discussion!
Diana also commented on the way the Frank/Claire storyline was handled in Episode 303.
*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***
There are SPOILERS for Episode 303 ("All Debts Paid") below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.
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Obviously, the TV writers made a deliberate choice to come down on one side of the never-ending argument, practically hitting the audience over the head with a sledgehammer, IMHO, in order to make sure no one missed the point. As Diana says:
She concludes:
As Diana is fond of saying, "the books are the books, and the show is the show". The TV show has given us a definitive answer to this longstanding question, but that doesn't mean that Book Frank cheated on Book Claire. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. And if we never find out for sure, that's fine with me.
The books never _do_ answer that question; assorted readers are obviously convinced that he did or he didn't--but they don't have any hard evidence to prove it one way or the other; the moral ambiguity abides, and they can argue it 'til they turn blue in the face, so far as I'm concerned. <g>
I imagine that many of you are saying indignantly, "Of COURSE he cheated on Claire! She certainly thinks he did." But it's not that simple. There's no proof, in the books. Just a lot of circumstantial evidence on both sides. And Claire is hardly an unbiased, impartial observer.
I've said before that I hope Diana Gabaldon never actually gives us a Definitive Answer to this question, in the books. I much prefer the ambiguity, because it generates so much discussion!
Diana also commented on the way the Frank/Claire storyline was handled in Episode 303.
*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***
There are SPOILERS for Episode 303 ("All Debts Paid") below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
Obviously, the TV writers made a deliberate choice to come down on one side of the never-ending argument, practically hitting the audience over the head with a sledgehammer, IMHO, in order to make sure no one missed the point. As Diana says:
[The writers] do want us to go on liking Claire and that's so much easier if Frank is a skunk, because then we don't have to blame her for the ultimate failure of the marriage, for tuning out on him and treating him coldly, because obviously he deserved it, so yay, Claire! On with finding Jamie...
She concludes:
By and large, I thought it was very skillful and well done. It didn't happen, of course <cough>, but it was very well structured, written and acted, and serves its purpose in the arc of the story very cleanly.
As Diana is fond of saying, "the books are the books, and the show is the show". The TV show has given us a definitive answer to this longstanding question, but that doesn't mean that Book Frank cheated on Book Claire. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. And if we never find out for sure, that's fine with me.
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