But Is It True?
Whenever I read a piece written in the first person, sooner or later I ask thequestion, “Is it true?”It doesn’t have to be true. After all, a whole genre of fiction is based on whatis called “the unreliable narrator”—Dostoevsky’s
Diary of a Madman
, FordMaddox Ford’s
The Good Soldier,
Eudora Welty’s
Why I Live at the P.O.
Reading these narratives you realize, at some point, that the person who istelling the story is not to be trusted. Moreover, the narrator’s false naturecontributes to your enjoyment of the story or novel. It is a fiction, and it ismeant to be read as fiction. You, the reader, understand that whatever truthor wisdom is to be found in a work of this sort is set there obliquely throughpeople who never lived but might have, or through seemingly improbableevents that could, nevertheless, have taken place. The critical issue is thatthis work of fiction in all its shadowy luminescence reveals somethingimportant about life. There is, of course, a more complicated issue than the question of truth,namely, the degree of honesty with which a story is told. Truth implies apower beyond human comprehension and a capacity to know bordering onomnipotence. Science neither speaks of truth not asks for it. It does,however, expect its practitioners to report the data honestly, and it callsexperiments that can be replicated, valid and reliable rather than true. The Karamazov brothers present in their fictional lives different attitudesabout how life should be lived, and Dostoevsky pushes the huge stone of hisunfinished novel up a very long hill to show us how these attitudes might playout. He pokes and prods at our ideas about how life should be lived, and hetells a good story along the way. Though fiction,
The Brothers Karamazov
isboth honest and true—but the truth is fluid, and honesty, I think, should betreated less as a noun than an adjective, as in, “an honest effort.” In this casethe effort produced a masterpiece, but whether because of the author’s
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Great read. Oh yea, controversial memoirs are a problem. Don't forget James Frey. What ever happened to that guy anyways? Didn't he write another book?
Young writers take note of this too! Bay Tree how did I miss this before? Funny cause I just assigned "Why I Live at the P.O." a couple days ago. Found another Miles devotee in the meantime as you can see. Anyways thanks for generously posting articles like this.
It's me again, the "Happy Booker"! Well, the printer is still having an attitude, but I loved this article as well...and I can hardly wait to tell my children that "there is entertainment value in an imperfect memory"--it might come as a shock to them. But I have always said "the nicest thing about talking to someone your own age (I am 77) is that if, God forbid, you should repeat yourself...they will have forgotten you ever said it!" I would be so thrilled if you would check out my article "Some Tender Moments with the Gay Community"--It's only been on for a few hours and has gotten lots of "hits" and a few downloads...probably had something to do with a book I co-authored, titled "Granny and the Gay Guy"--when I told Jim I'd come up with that title, his eyes widened, and he said "Terrific! Which one to YOU wanna be!"...And beware...you will find me perched on your knee quite often! Fondly, Charlene Potterbaum
YOU COME STEP IN MY SHOES AND SEE IF ITS TRUE I DARE YOU