LIKE BALDWIN, FICTION HAS TO TALK ITS FACE AWAY
Fiction possesses no truth dividend, lacks nonfiction's autotelic claim a the reader’s attention. Fiction arrives at the reader’s door under the banner that this is a lie and must gain entrance anyway
We understand that nonfiction often begins with an advantage, arriving at a reader’s door with a card of introduction and a letter of recommendation that is best characterized by George H. Jensen: “nonfiction makes a certain kind of truth claim: This is what actually happened.”
Whether true or not,“(w)riters of nonfiction create a certain kind of contract with their reader. The author says, 'Everything I have written actually happened.'"1
Under normal circumstances fiction possesses no such truth dividend, lacks nonfiction’s autotelic claim on the reader’s attention. Fiction arrives at the reader’s door under the banner that this is a lie and must gain entrance anyway.
I am reminded of something I read in Hilton Als' awesome piece on James Baldwin.