My memoir was truthful. If I did not remember something, I said that or left it out. I wanted to sick to the truth. I don't want to be one of those writers who lies to their audience.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Truth
There is no gray matter in truth. If something happened, then it is true and it can appear in nonfiction. If it did not happen, it is a lie and cannot appear in nonfiction. I don't really understand why this is an argument. If your memory is wrong then you don't know that it is not true, but I do feel there is a moral obligation of the author to seek the truth.
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2 comments:
Your honesty is commendable and I mean that, but is your memory really so pristine? Also, do you believe that there is any particular boundary between non-fiction and creative non-fiction in terms to truth-telling? Is the latter more dependent upon style? I'm curious as to your opinions on this.
No, I do not think that my memory is perfect, but I do feel that if I question a memory that constitutes a need for an evaluation of the "truth". It is the duty of the non-fiction author to seek the truth, otherwise they are a liar.
I think style is dependent on how one writes, not what one writes. You can write the truth in a creative fashion but it still has to be truth.
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