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musings, thoughts, and writings of Barbara W. Klaser


January 14, 2006

Truth and fiction

Everyone’s blogging about James Frey, whose book I haven’t read. The Smoking Gun calls it A Million Little Lies. I found my favorite comments on the subject over at Duane Swierczynski’s Secret Dead Blog, in An Open Letter to James Frey. They’re my favorite because Duane made me laugh, and I wish I could dismiss the whole subject as laughable. But as Lee Goldberg pointed out in his post, Lies are the new Truth, we seem to live in a world that devalues truth.

Is that the way you like it?

We expect truth when we pay for nonfiction. I think we also want it when we pay for fiction. That anyone should suggest lying is okay, in nonfiction, news, education, politics, advertising, government, or even in fiction, disturbs me. The fact that we too often don’t get the truth when we expect it is more a comment on those feeding us the lies than a statement about what we value or what we’ll accept. Yes, mistakes happen. Sometimes we pass lies on that we don’t realize are lies, we make errors, we don’t carry research far enough or ask the right questions, we use poor judgement, we misinterpret, and we frequently mistake opinions, theories, or beliefs for fact. I can forgive almost any of these as human, within limits. But there is a limit.

Even in our common definitions of good fiction, most of us think it should contain a core of truth, of realism. We want to be able to believe the illusion, at least while we’re in the story. We prefer, at best, to carry away some seed of truth that works for us in everyday life. Fiction can be fun, lighthearted, humorous, frightening, outlandish, or fanciful. But there are elements the reader needs to be able to believe. By the end of Lord of the Rings, I knew something about what a hero is, even though the story is classic fantasy. A kind of trust builds between reader and author as soon as a reader opens a book. If the author has done his job, the memory of how well the author lives up to that trust will stay with the reader long after the end of the story.

— Barbara @ 4:18 pm PST, 01/14/06

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13 Comments

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  1. 1.

    It’s a train wreck, isn’t it and he’s #1 at Amazon…

    Comment by R.J. Baker — January 14, 2006 @ 4:42 pm

  2. 2.

    I have to say that I appreciated Oprah saying that what she felt was the most important thing about his writing was the wonderful, healing effect it had on so many people. I do agree with that.

    Comment by violetismycolor — January 14, 2006 @ 8:50 pm

  3. 3.

    An excerpt from a NY Times editorial:
    In an interview with The Times last month, Mr. Frey said that he originally envisioned “A Million Little Pieces” not as a memoir but as a novel. “We were in discussions after we sold it as to whether to publish it as fiction or as nonfiction,” he said.

    I don’t think this excuses the author’s deceptions, but while everyone has been beating him up, one should consider the marketing meetings and big shot executives that determined its genre status from a profitability standpoint. I think the publisher may be the bigger skunk in these smelly dealings, as wagons of lawyers circle around them.

    How odd, too, I have thought, that while I pound out my fiction, so much subliminal non-fiction tidbits are culled from my own life. Every writer taps into his/her own history and fictionalizes it – we can’t help ourselves. But I know that is a different issue.

    Comment by Reenie — January 15, 2006 @ 9:10 am

  4. 4.

    Yes it’s a trainwreck, R. J. I’m sure Frey never thought this would become the mess it is.

    Violetismycolor, overcoming his addiction was a heroic accomplishment in itself, without any added embellishment. Yet I wonder if such a personal triumph alone would be enough for it to be published and succeed this way in our current market. Most memoirs we see are written by people who are already celebrities, who have “star appeal”—whatever that is. A sad comment perhaps on what we as a reading public (or the publishers who attempt to predict our reading interests) consider worthwhile or heroic.

    Reenie, you’re right, a lot of personal experience goes into fiction. I’ve taken little incidents in my life and interspersed them in my stories in a variety of ways.

    I don’t personally know exactly how much embellishment of the truth went on in Frey’s book. I haven’t read it, and I haven’t read the police reports and other resources The Smoking Gun claims to have found. If there were dicussions of whether to publish it as memoir or fiction beforehand, then I’m suspicious about the motives anyone had for publishing it as nonfiction, epecially considering this observation from Lev Grossman at Time.com:

    “By claiming that his story was literally true, Frey endowed it with a heightened immediacy and an emotional force that it lacked as a novel—in effect, he borrowed a little extra emotional oomph from his trusting readers, who treated his narrative as 100% lived experience, real dues paid by a real person.”

    (Thanks to Lewis Perdue, who commented at Lee Goldberg’s blog, for the link.)

    Did Frey make that claim, or did the publisher?

    Most of the outraged opinions I’ve read are by other writers. (Maybe I’m reading the wrong blogs to get a clear picture of the reaction to this.) Is there some jealousy here, of his success? Probably. Envy is natural in a business where two writers can plug away at their work, doing their best to improve, to create original work, to write something artistic rather than crap. One makes it big and another remains unknown. Of course there’s going to be envy. I’m envious.

    But I don’t think it’s just that. Perhaps Frey has been made the scapegoat for a host of ills. It’s easier to attack a previously unknown writer than a government leader or a news media conglomerate, if you’re looking for someone to blame for all the lies ever told. When people feel suckered they tend to back away in shame, unwilling to admit they were taken in, while their anger smolders. People have accumulated a lot of anger about lies told by those in positions of trust. James Frey may be just the easy target the public has been waiting for, someone safe to point fingers at.

    I sort of doubt Frey is entirely to blame for the ultimate decision to publish this as nonfiction. Yet his signature went on a contract somewhere. When we sign publishing contracts it’s not enough that we’re finally making it as writers and getting paid for what we do. That’s wonderful, but we have to consider we’re the ones people will look to if they ultimately decide they’re not happy with what’s inside the cover. Lies have a way of coming back to bite us. Money isn’t everything. Publication isn’t everything. It just sometimes feels like it is.

    Comment by Barbara W. Klaser — January 15, 2006 @ 12:41 pm

  5. 5.

    I think you let your emotions get the best of you for a nanosecond. I don’t believe for a moment you could be envious of Frey. You have too much integrity and would always take the high road. And look at the mess he is in, the eternal loss of integrity. You would never make that sacrifice. But maybe I confuse you thought of envy with actual intent.

    I am frosted but not jealous. One thing for certain, if I ever get published I will never have to worry about whatever Smoking Gun can unearth. I think everyone was complicit – writer and publisher, motivated by blind greed. We all want notoriety, but not this brand.

    It’s all so stupid. Like the teacher who has a relationship with a student and thinks he/she will never get caught. Duh. It’s all so brazen and egomaniacal.

    Comment by Reenie — January 15, 2006 @ 3:02 pm

  6. 6.

    No, I didn’t mean I’m envious of Frey. I wasn’t clear. I meant that, like anyone, I sometimes envy others’ success. I wouldn’t wish his current situation on anyone.

    Comment by Barbara W. Klaser — January 15, 2006 @ 3:21 pm

  7. 7.

    I’m amazed this should elicit discussion. Frey claimed the book was true. It wasn’t. He’s a liar. He was willing to lie for money. Sorry, to sound so snarky, but there is a difference between truth and lies, no matter how much the liars who profit by their falsehoods would like to convince us otherwise.

    Comment by Eric Mayer — January 15, 2006 @ 5:31 pm

  8. 8.

    Yikes! Discussion is always worthy.

    Comment by Reenie — January 15, 2006 @ 7:59 pm

  9. 9.

    “Would a publisher buy his book again? You bet,” says Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal. “He is that rarest of commodities: he’s sold books.”
    Read more…

    The buzz continues.

    Comment by Ken — January 16, 2006 @ 1:01 am

  10. 10.

    Hi book is as real as reality TV. It’s all pre-packaged, augmented realism. He won’t be speaking at any writer’s conferences, but he’ll still sell a ton. Sad.

    Comment by jamieford — January 17, 2006 @ 3:53 pm

  11. 11.

    What is the big deal about this memoir? Most memoirs are not actual truths, are they? Some characters in memoirs have been molded into one, some events have been switched around for better storytelling…and someone else’s view of an event would not be the same as mine. And storytellers have always ‘embellished’ their tales sitting around the campfires.

    Take a look at Homer Hickam’s memoir of growing up in a coal mining town in WV, Rocket Boys, turned into the film October Sky. He does acknowledge upfront that he melded some characters together, etc. I have met Mr. Hickam, he’s quite an honest man and captured my homestate and the coal mining industry beautifully.

    Perhaps if Frey had acknowledged a little embellishment upfront, then there wouldn’t be such a big fuss. The big fuss was that it was an Oprah selection and some writer/reporter wanted to disparage that. Plenty of memoirs are not ‘full’ truths. I have thought about writing my own memoir about time spent in the army and as an army wife. It wouldn’t be the same experience of writing it as the actual experience I had.

    Memoir and reporting, however, are two different things, and I have been a reporter. Still, you never really get it ‘right’ as it played out during the event, even as a reporter, there is a slant of some kind. Though reporters should be held to a higher standard than memoirists and should have their facts checked, such as when they reported the the miners were alive in WV when they weren’t. A quick check by the AP reporter, CNN, FOX or Post reporters with the command center at the mine would have been all that was needed besides going on hearsay (as the corporate mine owners should have corrected it on the spot also). We should be demanding more from the media instead of book authors to get it right, to include the reporting of war in Iraq.

    Memoirs are just someone’s recollection. I can write a story about some of my Army days, and I know someone else could dispute my recollections. So why bother now? Wrap it around fiction, I suppose. Then people will think it really did happen. ha.

    Comment by gge — January 18, 2006 @ 1:07 pm

  12. 12.

    Since in Hickam’s book it is acknowledged that creative license was taken with events and people were combined, do we now shelve it under fiction? The movie took it even further by making the memoir fictionalized. I’m also a screenwriter, so Mr. Hickam and I have talked about the filmmaking process of his book.

    Here are some exact quotes from his author’s note page in the front of book:
    “The Rocket Boys…and their lives and times were real, but…I have used a certain author’s license in telling their story…I have used actual names…, I have used pseudonyms for others and also sometimes combined two or more people into one…for clarification and simplification…also taken certain liberties in the telling of the story….particularly…with precise sequences of events and who may have said what to whom…my intention…to stray from strict nonfiction was always to illuminate more brightly the truth.”

    It’s in his book, which is now considered a classis, is required reading by many school and universities throughout the country. So maybe, if a writing teacher is teaching memoir writing based on this, then a little ‘illuminating’ of the truth is okay. His is a bestseller and a film now. If Frey had included this, and maybe he did I haven’t even seen the book, he’d be okay. Or is it fiction then?

    Are we now going to cull through all the memoirs and check the facts? No, this was an Oprah selection and for whatever reason, that is why it’s in the media now and the author has been dragged through the mud.

    As for my memoir, some if it would be unbelievable, so with all this going on, I’m headed for the fiction route maybe. Then I’ll leave it up to the reader to determine what is real or not.

    Comment by gge — January 18, 2006 @ 1:22 pm

  13. 13.

    Oprah confronts James Frey: Author Frey admits fictions, Oprah apologises.

    Excerpts: ‘I regret that phone call…’

    More related news.

    Comment by Barbara W. Klaser — January 26, 2006 @ 12:26 pm

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