The Non-Fiction Moment
I catch myself using ‘book’ and ‘novel’ interchangeably. This inner bias intends no disrespect toward works of non-fiction. Cook books and travelogues, ambitious biographies, blustery political tomes, memoirs, self-help, how to, all deserve the same nomenclature as novels. We live a non-fiction moment as the NYT is fond of reminding us at least twice monthly, in case we forget and allow our imaginations to run riot. The non-fiction moment in the United States implies there is nothing to learn from fiction, that novels are failing to explain exigency and circumstance as distinguished from pomp and circumstance. Non-fiction delivers facts, verified and homogenized, to blend with existing facts, statistics, metrics, conclusions accompanied by source material. The Times posits the idea that since 9-11 we’re collectively incapable of entering the alternate realities fiction presents because the current state of affairs demands our full attention.
I’m game to suspend disbelief and enter the non-fiction moment. Like Disneyland this moment is color coded for convenience; there is Important Non-fiction, usually found on the right as we enter the park. These authors have television shows. Their opinions shape and mold us by emphasis. Be careful as you pass the Anne Coulter exhibit; she bites. Let’s follow Mickey toward the Celebrity Corner. This is serious as well; reading celebrity biographies inspire the rest of us to imitate our heroes in the hopes of fulfillment. Gurus are located in the booths next to the celebs: Goofy is waving a banner that reads ‘Learn the Secrets of Bond Investing.’ Not to give away years of research but one of the secrets of bond investing is diversification. Even post 9-11 I think I can grasp that much.
I’ve stopped for a nine dollar soda, fully cognizant that energy costs, litigation costs and post manufacturing non-recurring charges have influenced the price of my drink. This is good to know. I feel better in the non-fiction moment. Yes, I want to lose forty pounds, learn the secrets of bond investing, understand the deleterious effects of independent thought, surrender to the guru of moment, allow them to work their magic with empirical soufflees whipped to perfection. Now that I understand how the Consumer Pice Index is calculated, I doubt I’ll read any more fiction. The nagging doubt that remains is this: why are these non-fiction moments available only in Fantasy Land?
December 8th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Swiped from today’s (Dec
Writer’s Almanac:
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It’s the birthday of the conservative columnist Ann Coulter, (books by this author) born in New Canaan, Connecticut (1961). She founded the conservative Cornell Review in college at Cornell and then went on to law school at the University of Michigan, where she started a new chapter of the Federalist Society. She practiced law for more than a decade before she began her syndicated column for the Universal Press Syndicate in 1999. She was fired from a spot as a commentator on MSNBC when she told a disabled Vietnam veteran, “People like you caused us to lose that war.” She later said that she hadn’t realized he was disabled. After September 11, 2001, she lost her column on the National Review website when she wrote a column that said of muslims, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”
She’s gone on to write several controversial and bestselling books of political commentary, including Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (2003).
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Now there’s a nonfiction moment for you. She wouldn’t work as a character in a novel, but seems to work in real life.
DI