Talk:Paula Jean Welden

Unconnected material removed

I've purged the following information format he article twice (1, 2) now:

"The novelist Donna Tartt, a Bennington student in 1982–86, began writing her first novel, The Secret History, during her second year at the college. With parallels to the Welden case, Tartt's 1992 bestseller, set at a college similar to Bennington, tells of a group of students who murder a fellow student while he is hiking near the college."

The removed bit synthesizes a connection between Tartt's novel and the Welden disappearance - a connection unsupported by the included reference. Until such time as an independent source can be found that connects the two, it is my opinion that the two cannot be connecgted. Thusly, this bit can't be reintroduced into the article. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 07:17, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

The reference is here, [1] three paragraphs from the bottom. What if I quote directly from the review? Pepso2 (talk) 11:58, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I had missed the (very) oblique reference:

"and the plot parallels to some degree the unsolved case of a missing Bennington student from the 1940s."

I think I had missed it because the reference only references a missing Bennington student, not Welden. I think that without more explicit mention, we cannot use it, and quoting the sentence isn't going to really resolve the matter. Do you have a reference that is more explicit? - Jack Sebastian (talk) 16:38, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

If there's a quote from Gioia, it would stand as an explicit reference to the parallel as he sees it. Pepso2 (talk) 20:00, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Respectfully, that would be incorrect, Pepso2, as Ted Gioia doesn't explicitly refer to Welden by name. He could be talking about any Bennington student that had gone missing; recall that others had gone missing in the "Bennington Triangle" as well. Since he did not single out Welden as the basis (and furthermore, that Tartt herself didn't specify it as such), any leap of faith on our part that he was referring to Welden would be synthesis. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 14:45, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

They seem to think the connection is worth noting over at The Secret History but what their reference is, I don't know. 58.96.94.12 (talk) 10:08, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out, anon58. You will note that the bit - mentioned solely in the Lede - had no accompanying citation explicitly noting the connection between the book and Welden. I've removed it from there as well. It's my own fault for not checking the book article after removing it here. Thanks again. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 12:21, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

References