False Memoir May Find New Life as Fiction
Days after Berkley Books announced that it was canceling the publication of the memoir “Angel at the Fence,” after its author, Herman Rosenblat, acknowledged that he had falsified parts of his story, an independent publisher said it was negotiating to release the book as a work of fiction.
What drives these "lying" memoirs is a culture that believes "a true story" is more "true" than an imagined story, which is hogwash. Dostoevsky did not have to murder someone in order to get into the mind of a murderer. Sophocles did not have to tear his eyes out in order to create a believable Oedipus. We discredit the imagination by our belief that the "literal" meaning is the "true" meaning.
No comments:
Post a Comment