Hemingway

We discussed in class the idea of fiction and non-fiction and how elements of each are present in both. In Avatars of Story, Ryan writes, “In the past few decades, the boarder between fiction and nonfiction has been the site of numerous violations which have caused, if not the spilling of blood, at lest the spilling of ink.” There as been some controversies as to how much truth goes into fiction, or how much fiction can go into a nonfiction.
This idea made me think of an Ernest Hemingway quote: “All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened…” The idea of a true fiction. I believe that Hemingway was referring to the idea that the author has to tell the truth about his story, even if it is not real.  read more »

Crawford mentions that fiction is an "untruth that is not a lie." Well, to answer perfectly for all situations: sort of.

Fiction is a lie. But it's a lie without the negative connotations of "lying." Fiction is art, it's entertainment, it's goal is to communicate and evoke emotion. Creative writing students, including me, will tell you that we're all liars. In fact, what makes us good at writing is that we're good liars.

What separates a simple lie, from fiction, is credibility. Dickens describes the disheveled mansion of Miss Haversham in order to lend her credibility. To make her, and the "lie" that he's painting, more believable. Everyone knows the lie: "My dog ate my homework," but if you add certain details, it can sound more realistic. "My dog, I swear he's blind from cataracts and, well--you know--flea bitten old guy, he didn't know the difference..." etc. etc.  read more »