I've had a bit of a break and was bemused and amused in equal measure on my return by the correspondence that has been going on amongst the RDA-L list members about main entries for fictitious characters who purport to have written books. To put it briefly, if a book presents itself as having been written by a character who we all know doesn't really exist, we still have to make that fictitious character the main entry. So, "The Hums of Pooh" will appear under Pooh's name even though we all know that Pooh didn't really write them and AA Milne did.
I've bleated about this before and it still strikes me as moderately daft. We don't classify by title (we don't do we? Please tell me you don't put "Leaves of grass" in botany) but do our best to find out what the book is really about - and therefore why shouldn't we make an equivalent attempt to discover and reveal the true author? Yes, we should also make it plain that the book seems to have been written by a fictional character, either in the statement of responsibility or in a note, because that helps and informs the reader - just as we make a note if a book is not at all about what the title makes it seem.
What bothers me, though, is that we are adopting this new rule - copying what it says on the title-page without any questioning or any application of common-sense - at exactly the same time as we are all jumping up and down trying to explain the importance of what we do, how we mediate and manage and moderate information to add value for our users. I think I'm going to find that quite difficult when I appear to believe that "Me Cheeta" was written by an ape.
