I'm 15 live under the sea, love pizza, have two brothers, and take Best Sellers.
The majority of that sentence is true, except as you probably know, I do not live under the sea. Just because most of that information is correct that does not make the sentence nonfiction. Readers deserve to know if what we are reading is the truth. Shields says this does not matter; you can even plagiarize as long as the end result looks different. But that argument only works if you're reading to be entertained. For example, some people may have read A Million Little Pieces to get inspiration to overcome their own addictions. In this case they deserve the truth, because this book if affecting their lives in a tangible way. To come out and say you didn't do as you told them you did is like telling a little girl you can fly so she can too. You may make her happy momentarily but later she'll feel cheated. And I for one wouldn't want to write a biography on Abraham Lincoln and call him a vampire hunter because fiction and nonfiction are no longer there to tell me what is true and what isn't.
If you want to bend the truth in a memoir like other authors we looked at today did, then you either need to tell us that in an author’s note or make the novel fiction. Like I said before the readers deserve to know if what they are reading is the truth so that they don't recite false information to others. By not telling someone what is false you are spreading ignorance and letting people become blind to the truth.
If you want to obliterate the differences between romance and love stories, magic realism and fantasy, that's one thing, it's something totally different to blur fiction and nonfiction. When I pick up a nonfiction book I know that I am getting the truth and I can use the information on assignments and won't get called out for telling lies. If I no longer know what is nonfiction than I could pick out Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and write my essay on information gained through that source not realizing that I was going to get a F for falsified information. Although Shields says it doesn't matter the truth is a powerful thing with the ability to change life for the worse or better, spread awareness, and bring more meaning into the world. When you can no longer distinguish truth from lies it either all becomes the truth or its all lies. Is that how you want the book world to look like? A bunch of half-made truths with only the purpose to entertain? That may be okay for some people in this class who love to read for entertainment (including me) but that's not okay for this world. Not everyone reads for the same purpose and genre lines help guide us in the right way. Especially the genre lines of fiction and nonfiction.
Your post is very persuasive, I believe you have a very valid point as to why you believe that, but I still maintain that although telling a girl she can fly is rather falicious, she may be the next Amelia Earhart and only needed that bust of inspiration--truth or no.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your idea. I think that it is unfair to the reader if the book is not true because a personal story can affect many people in different ways.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that some of it's fake makes it nonfiction. It changes the whole aspect of the story.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that it isn't exactly fair to the reader when a non-fiction writer makes up stories that aren't true. They should always tell the truth.
ReplyDeleteI agree and Nikki, what's up?!?!?!?!?!?! If you have a story that is true, and then someone ahs a story like yours that's not true, it's not far if they make money claiming that it is true. Also, if you think of part of you life and then you make up something to make it better, you should put it in the fiction cateragory and then come out and say thta part of it's true. People will like you even more than they usually would if part of your book is true. :): bipolar smiley face!
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