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Fiction vs Non-Fiction
Sep. 18th, 2010 10:30 am I don't actually read fiction for pleasure any more. I haven't in years. I think the last novel I read was probably The Namesake, and that's because a friend and I read the book together and then watched the film when it came out.
It might be for the same reason I no longer watch any television. I got passionately involved in series that, IMO, didn't merit such effort on my part in the end, because it appeared the creators weren't interested in really upholding their end of the "bargain" with their audience. After feeling, however irrationally, that I'd been duped and manipulated, I have no interest in entering into such again. I don't have time or emotional energy to waste on the "next X-files" or Harry Potter whatever the cultural touchstone of the moment is.
[This is going to segue into a rant about SEGA if I'm not careful. Maybe tomorrow.]
What gets me excited is non-fiction. Like the book I just borrowed from a friend on research into the lost Knight Expedition in Canada. Or my current obsession, the books of Nathaniel Philbrick. I've always loved the dodgy biographies and history books of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ones written in an era when historians felt free to impose their own prejudices and opinions on the text and the standards of research were far below today's concepts of respectability. That was part of the fun, for me-- comparing sequential "authoritative works" on the same subject and seeing how the historical narrative evolved to suit the teller's era and audience.
[If you ever want to get me wound up, ask me about the public perception of the Battle of Gettysburg before and after the publication of The Killer Angels. Or the historical treatment of the Apollo Program before and after Tom Hanks became its Number One Fan.]
I guess what I love most is when someone crafts a wonderful narrative with three-dimensional characters and some kind of cultural/mythical resonance and it's all real. Or as real as you can get from reconstructing events centuries after the fact. Philbrick's books are just excellent-- his research standards appear to be impeccable, and his prose and characterization both make for serious good reading. He doesn't have to make up ridiculous events or poignant coincidences to tweak the readers' hearts, because these things actually happened... and truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.
I think I wrote this because Never Let Me Go is in the spotlight right now and I have a toxic reaction to its very conceptual underpinnings.
It might be for the same reason I no longer watch any television. I got passionately involved in series that, IMO, didn't merit such effort on my part in the end, because it appeared the creators weren't interested in really upholding their end of the "bargain" with their audience. After feeling, however irrationally, that I'd been duped and manipulated, I have no interest in entering into such again. I don't have time or emotional energy to waste on the "next X-files" or Harry Potter whatever the cultural touchstone of the moment is.
[This is going to segue into a rant about SEGA if I'm not careful. Maybe tomorrow.]
What gets me excited is non-fiction. Like the book I just borrowed from a friend on research into the lost Knight Expedition in Canada. Or my current obsession, the books of Nathaniel Philbrick. I've always loved the dodgy biographies and history books of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ones written in an era when historians felt free to impose their own prejudices and opinions on the text and the standards of research were far below today's concepts of respectability. That was part of the fun, for me-- comparing sequential "authoritative works" on the same subject and seeing how the historical narrative evolved to suit the teller's era and audience.
[If you ever want to get me wound up, ask me about the public perception of the Battle of Gettysburg before and after the publication of The Killer Angels. Or the historical treatment of the Apollo Program before and after Tom Hanks became its Number One Fan.]
I guess what I love most is when someone crafts a wonderful narrative with three-dimensional characters and some kind of cultural/mythical resonance and it's all real. Or as real as you can get from reconstructing events centuries after the fact. Philbrick's books are just excellent-- his research standards appear to be impeccable, and his prose and characterization both make for serious good reading. He doesn't have to make up ridiculous events or poignant coincidences to tweak the readers' hearts, because these things actually happened... and truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.
