tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post8088721741556410101..comments2023-05-21T14:46:54.138+01:00Comments on FictionBitch: The Myth About FactsElizabeth Baineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17193751871434773972noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post-970830077884060952007-09-15T11:10:00.000+01:002007-09-15T11:10:00.000+01:00Susan: This is why, against the current trend, I'm...Susan: This is why, against the current trend, I'm not such a fan of memoir (and champion fiction above it). Though it seems to me anyway that we need a different view of memoirs: we should stop seeing them as incontrovertible fact and understand that they are, as you say, one person's filtering of their own experience - which inevitably involves distortion, wishful thinking , etc - in other words, fictionalization.<BR/><BR/>I'm still uneasy with your use of the word 'exposed' for Frey, which implies his wilful deceit. As I say above, we need to take into account his claim that he never wanted to publish his book as a memoir in the first place, but felt coerced by the contemporary memoir-mad market.Elizabeth Baineshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17193751871434773972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post-70406359811108274692007-09-14T22:35:00.000+01:002007-09-14T22:35:00.000+01:00Totally agree with "biographism" as a ghastly way...Totally agree with "biographism" as a ghastly way to read fiction...(and I suspect I'm slightly unhinged on the subject of Frey anyway!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post-33510735168994320892007-09-14T21:44:00.000+01:002007-09-14T21:44:00.000+01:00The novel is a text and the text stands alone from...The novel is a text and the text stands alone from the moment the umbilical cord is cut from the author - i.e. when it`s finished. The author is entirely irrelevant, as is their life, how much of the novel is 'true' - everything. Derrida was right. Post modernism is right. But if a book calls itself an autobiography or a memoir then it is different, the author is not irrelevant - though fact has obviously been distilled through them, changed by their perception etc. <BR/>I know of the case of a UK author who got away with murder when writing what he called a memoir (and a misery one) when 80% of it was made-up. He took in everyone - everyone, that is, bar his siblings. They knew. But whereas Frey was exposed, this guy has conned most people.SusanHillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06471719090691632864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post-4325343323484577832007-09-14T21:29:00.000+01:002007-09-14T21:29:00.000+01:00Mm. I'm not convinced, though, that we don't read ...Mm. I'm not convinced, though, that we don't read novels differently (you read it as fact) and apply different moral judgements to both fictional characters and their authors. This is why I am dead against the biographical approach to fiction ('how autobiographical is this?') and feel we need a greater separation between novels and their authors than we allow at present.Elizabeth Baineshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17193751871434773972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26654079.post-91037407415248600172007-09-14T20:33:00.000+01:002007-09-14T20:33:00.000+01:00Maybe, baby (& I love your blog)Maybe the blame sh...Maybe, baby (& I love your blog)<BR/><BR/>Maybe the blame should have been shared more.<BR/><BR/>But my annoyance remains. <BR/><BR/>I loathed Frey's book on first reading - but gave it huge (private) dispensation for its apparent factual authenticity.<BR/><BR/>And when Frey says: <I>Things were changed for all sorts of reasons: effect, for respect, other people's anonymity, making the story function properly</I>...his statement is still only a partial "truth".<BR/><BR/>Every fact change was to make his ordeal seem objectively worse and his recovery more admirable.<BR/><BR/>None of them "functioned" in the other direction.<BR/><BR/>That's why I still think he's a toad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com