Dr. Chris Johanson, of U.C.L.A., said in his lecture at U.B.C. this week that, in his digital reconstruction of the Roman forum, he intentionally departs from realism.  One's avatar is any one of an host of clearly modern people; and the buildings themselves are meant to appear somewhat cartoonish.  Why?  Because realism, he believes, would lead a viewer to believe in the objectivity and finality of the reconstruction. 
     His logic is this, so far as I can gather: Modern learners attempt to construct mental models of the ancient world visually.  Each of us maps Rome in his head, and an image, once settled, is difficult to change.  Drawings and films fix these models all the more tenaciously and vividly in proportion to their realism, not their accuracy.  Hence Anthony Mann's 1964 film The Fall of the Roman Empire has done immeasurable harm to studies of the Forum, by propagating very realistic but inaccurate model.  To avert further damage, tentative models should use a tentative style: the cartoon.
    

Since cartoon's are, generally speaking, associated with fiction, a cartoonish representation would