Comments on: The Truth as Stronger than Fiction

By: devan

devan — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:22:29 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Anonymous. You make a really interesting point about “uplift,” which to me, too, has a certain offensive tone.

I’d add that the compatibility of the concept of uplifting with certain kinds of religious thinking seems in line with your point about being pulled up by some “other.”

(It’s of course a debate for another time whether the Other I’m speaking of is imagined or not. Har.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:37:59 +0000

I’m with you that expectations lead the ways in which we read. It’s intriguing that you use, or rather Frey’s defenders use, the term “uplift” here. I’ve always been troubled by the term–there’s something so patronizing about it. One doesn’t expect oneself to be “uplifted” but rather some imagined (and troubled) other. I find it kind of intriguing how strong and long this connotation of uplift sticks around. And the way it is used to justify the most prurient kinds stories, from white slavery to addiction.

By: devan

devan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:07:11 +0000

Oh, without a doubt—and thanks for the leads. If A Million Little Pieces fits my point especially well, it’s only because of the kinds of defenses initiated by Frey and (especially) by readers like those Mendelsohn mentions.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:22:21 +0000

check out TELLING LIES IN MODERN AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Timothy Dow Adams, which examines Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, and Richard Wright, and Dorritt Cohn’s THE DISTINCTION OF FICTION, which looks at the notion of fictional biography and fictionality itself. I think we must must must look farther back than Frey when discussing this issue.