It also seems a more modern phenomenon in a way. A very English form of torture. This is one of its first purposes. In the very process of trying to write something down in a limited space, you have to choose your priorities. That is not going to be the only truth, but you have to concentrate on something.
Fiction does it no more than non-fiction.
The important thing to try and get some kernel of reality. I think if you can sum up the spirit of the moment, and perhaps capture the truth of the past in that way that the detailed factual accounts perhaps don't. I supposed I'm concerned about the history. I love history and take it seriously and don't like the idea of messing around or distorting it, but in some way the ability to alter the truth is part of being human, and a critical part of fiction writing. It is not so much a Marxist approach, but rather how a Marxist state works.