flitting on fiction

What’s the difference?

Is it as simple as not true/true? Not really. Fiction often begins with actual events, characters or situations, for starters.

And non-fiction - even if it does propose to be factual often isn’t really. Truth is at best an ellusive and transitory concept, that often has more to do with perception and interpretation than with reality. Your truth and my truth are quite often not at all the same thing.

And when it comes to the media, which is, of course, supposed to fall on the non-fiction side ….

Is it, at least in literature, a style of writing? Fiction = narrative, non-fiction = documentary? That might work - if only authors would co-operate and use the appropriate style consistently depending on what they are attempting to portray. What would be the fun in that though?

According to Dictionary.com (v 1.1)

fic·tion –noun 1. the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, esp. in prose form.
2. works of this class, as novels or short stories: detective fiction.
3. something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story: We’ve all heard the fiction of her being in delicate health.
4. the act of feigning, inventing, or imagining.
5. an imaginary thing or event, postulated for the purposes of argument or explanation.
6. Law. an allegation that a fact exists that is known not to exist, made by authority of law to bring a case within the operation of a rule of law.

——————————————————————————–

[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME < L fictiōn- (s. of fictiō) a shaping, hence a feigning, fiction, equiv. to fict(us) molded (ptp. of fingere) + -iōn- -ion]

non-fiction:
1. the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and the essay (opposed to fiction and distinguished from poetry and drama).
2. works of this class: She had read all of his novels but none of his nonfiction.
3. (esp. in cataloging books, as in a library or bookstore) all writing or books not fiction, poetry, or drama, including nonfictive narrative prose and reference works; the broadest category of written works.

So …what do you think? Fiction/non-fiction … is it in the content, or the style of the writing? Which do you prefer to read?

I am reading The French Lieutenant’s Woman right now; it was on the summer reading list for one of the courses I will be taking this fall: Fiction as Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction as Fiction: “Authenticity” and “Reality” in Modern and Contemporary Narratives. This is the course I am most looking forward to so far - based on what I know about them, and on their reading lists.

I found The French Lieutenant’s Woman pretty slow going at first - as in, more than a little boring - and almost left it in favour of one of the other novels for the course… several have shown up just this week. I ordered them all in one online order, but several were available only through associated second hand dealers, so they are all coming in separately.

But then I reached Chapter 13, which is, so far, my favourite bit of reading from all of the novels and texts I have read this summer. It is excellent, and I would bet, one of the main reasons the book is on the syllabus at all.

It begins with the answer to the questions asked at the end of Chapter 12:

Who is Sarah?
Out of what shadows does she come?

….

I do not know. This story I am telling is all imagination. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind. If I have pretended until now to know my characters’ minds and innermost thoughts, it is because I am writing in (just as I have assumed some of the vocabulary and voice of) a convention universally accepted at the time of my story: that the novelist stands next to God.

I won’t type the entire chapter out for you - but it is a fascinating discussion of the nature of fiction.

It excites me as it relates to my research interests in fiction - and also, as it pertains to my work as a writer.

The author, John Fowles, discusses the behaviour of his characters as something he does not - really - control. Charles went off and drank milk earlier in the work - that was, Fowles suggests, Charles decision, not Fowles’.

I have had that experience with my own characters.

While writing my YA novel (no Stephanie, not finished yet) - I had in mind an incident between 2 of the main characters. Amanda, the protagonist, was supposed to go AWOL with Candi, the resident pain in the posterior. Candi talks her into it …and then, as they were about to run - Candi stopped.. and ratted Amanda out. That was not my plan- but it is what I ended up typing. And it was clearly ‘right’.

Sometimes, it is as if the characters develop minds of their own.

Margaret Laurence, one of Canada’s most well known authors - and certainly one of my personal favourites - wrote about the same sort of thing in some of her letters to her friends and other authors.

It is a fascinating phenomenon, and I look forward to the opportunity to explore it in more depth as I continue my studies.

Have you experienced characters with minds of their own in your own writing?

I have mentioned, I think, that I will soon be doing an MA in English: Public Texts.

So - what is that, exactly?

According to the Trent web site:

Storytelling. Dramatic performance. Manuscript and print. The World Wide Web. All of these are forms of Public Text, and their production is a new and increasingly significant area of literary study.

In the M.A. in Public Texts program at Trent University, you will explore what it means to “go public” – to “publish” – and how that act resonates in the political, economic, and aesthetic spheres to influence our culture. Taking into consideration the history of the book, the nature of electronic production and circulation of texts, as well as theories of how “publics” are formed for and by texts, you will have the opportunity to engage in perspectives on literary production which are central to today’s dynamic mass culture.

The M.A. in Public Texts at Trent University will investigate the history of the Public Text, map its present and imagine its futures. Our students will develop new ways of looking at the production of texts, their circulation, and the relationship between texts and their publics, exploring issues which are emerging as central to literary research in
the twenty-first century.

I am excited about this aspect of the program - what it means is that at Trent, the focus is not simply on literature (keeping in mind that I am not fond of AncientLit) - but on the entire process of communication. Not only in print/publication of books - but also in a broad variety of other mediums, including the Internet. Several of the proposed essay questions included in our syllabus for the core course deal with online topics. That works for me - and is relevant, too, to my interest in working with adolescents, specifically, since so many of them are spending huge amounts of time online.

Of course, the topics that I am more interested in are the contemporary ones … I can’t say as I much cared for reading about the process of publishing pre: the printing press - or about the topic of bibliography - but oh well… can’t have everything

I sure hope the focus is on concepts, not memory work - I suck at memorizing dates & names & so on!

I have decided to focus the aforementioned psychology essay on the topic of  ”The Inclusion of Reading Fiction in Residential Treatment Therapeutic Recreation Programs for Adolescents” - yeah, I know, it’s a mouthful …but hopefully will come up with a catchy title and this can be the subtitle.It works within the guidelines of the assignment, which is, of course, the first priority - but it also works very well as another piece of groundwork towards my PhD research. Which, of course, since I am just starting my MA in English (Public Texts), is at first glance, rather premature - but given that the deadline to apply for scholarship funding for the 2009 - 2010 academic year is October 2008, the more research and writing I can do now, the better.

While I have yet to start writing, I have collected and skimmed through a great many resources, with which I shall answer the following questions:

• Who are the adolescents being served in (voluntary) residential treatment programs?  (Age, gender, situation, diagnoses, presenting problems)
• Goals of residential treatment for this population
• Goals of therapeutic recreation programs (how do TR goals support treatment goals AND needs of staff/program?)
• How can fiction be used as part of a TR program (and why, i.e. how can support the TR goals which support the …. Goals)  
• Also discuss bibliotherapy - i.e. that reading does not require a bibliotherapist in order to have benefits.
• Practical considerations (address reluctant readers, offering choice, etc)

Am I missing anything? Thoughts/questions/observations always welcome! 

I had the opportunity to interview a 12 year old young lady for my psychology paper research yesterday. Even though I am not convinced that I am going to do the interview option for the paper - mostly because I find the restrictions for that topic extremely limited - when her grandmother volunteered her, and she did not mind, I took the opportunity - for the experience, and also because the best way I know to learn about fiction and adolescents that I can come up with is to talk with some.

We talked about a whole range of topics - as per the guidelines given in the psych manual: relationships with siblings, parents, friends; fashion; problem-solving; recreation; hopes for the future; and of course, what she likes to read.

She is an avid reader, and often reads more than one book in a week (she’s got my college students beat already :)) Right now she is reading Wildflower by VC Andrews, a book that she says she likes because there are “lots of words I don’t know and I like learning what they mean” and because “it shows a lot about how people behave”. She related that there are 2 rich girls in the book “but only one of them acts rich” - when I asked what she meant by “acting rich” she said “you know, like she is better than people that don’t have so much money.”

B. gets her books from the library, and also is able to buy some every year after Christmas because her “other grandparents” (i.e. on her father’s side; we were at her mom’s parents’ house) give her gift certificates for bookstores, which she really likes. Other books that she reads are Nancy Drew and “almost anything I can get; I just read the back and if it looks interesting I read it”. She does prefer books about girls and women to those about boys, and enjoys reading magazines meant for teenage girls, although she doesn’t get to buy them often.

One of the things that interested me was that when asked where she learned about things she expressed interest in, such as fashion, make-up, singing, being in a band, etc. - she did not attribute such learning to TV (which she “loves”), movies, the Internet, or reading (of any sort). To me, as an adult, it seems obvious that a 12 yo girl learns about fashion, for example, from these places - or from her friends who learn about it from …. but she seemed truly at a loss to explain where her interests/preferences/knowledge come from.

Another area I asked her about was attitudes towards women - i.e. does she think things are fair in how men and women are treated. That, too, brought an interesting response. She believes that grown up women have equal rights and things are fair - but for kids, boys still get treated better than girls. When I asked her to expand on that, she said that boys get away with more and think they are better than the girls. I asked her where she thought they might have got that idea and she said that she had no idea, but maybe from their parents or teachers.

Funny - when we stopped yesterday, I really felt that there was still so much more I would have liked to ask her; I was somewhat disappointed with how ‘little’ I had got from her. But now that I am thinking about what I did get, I realize that I did, in fact, get a wealth of information with which I can work. I’ve yet to type up my notes or transcribe the recording - and I could go on and on here, yet.

And I am a clever birdie too - since I really am terribly interested in adolescents and fiction, I asked her mother to bring her and her 3 sisters by my place before they head home this afternoon. Thanks to my sister, and to my used bookstore addiction, I have a great many books suitable for the whole crew of them …. they are coming over to choose some for themselves - and I, of course, will take the opportunity to attend to what they choose, and talk to them about why they are taking this book as opposed to that, and so on.

Of course, it does mean parting with some of my books - even some I have not read yet!!!! - but it is for a good cause.

And I don’t have to give them ALL of my books, after all - although I suspect they would cheerfully clean me out if permitted - I figure that if I set a limit - like choose 3 books each, for example, I will learn more about WHAT appeals to them and why - than if I just let them take boxes. Right?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, anyway