Oy, practically wrote my blog in Matt's comments. Took a look at it and said, "Hey, that'll make a good blog entry!" And so here it is. With as much truth as possible.
"Lying became part of my life." James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Oh Mr. James Frey, how true you are to those words.
The line between truthiness (thank you, Stephen Colbert!) and non-truthiness in memoirs and personal essays are a thin, thin line. Sometimes, that line is downright blurry.
If you write about an event in which only you have witness too and no one else to back it up, what's stopping the author to embellish a bit, or maybe lying to boost up a point for entertainment?
You know what it is? The author's conscience. If you don't feel bad about lying a bit here and there (aka James Frey) then you will have no problems publishing those non-truths. Or maybe you will, but if those non-truths make your book the #1 book on the New York Times Bestsellers Booklist and that equates money, maybe those bad feelings will melt away.
James Frey not only embellished, he straight out made things up. The Smoking Gun reported that he tried to ship his manuscript as fiction first and as it all boils down, it turns out half of his words were fictions. The funny thing is, if he didn't go on Oprah, this probably would have never went down.
But still, it seems like the reader doesn't want the truth after all. Even after the blow up with Frey, A Million Little Pieces still remainded in the top 10 (even #1) on the New York Times Best Selling List for the Nonfiction Paperback editions. Heck, right at this moment, it's #25. I won't lie, I even bought the book when this was going down to see what the whole brouhaha was all about. Frey is a good writer - very good writer and even though I read his work as fiction, I still enjoyed it. Sometimes, bad press = MONEY and FAME. Hell, Hugo Chavez could even sell books for Noam Chomsky (as witnessed by the Amazon.com and Chomsky's #1 position on it at the time) after calling President George Bush an idiot and insane in the membrane. This society almost thirsts for controversy and having Ms. Queen Bee Oprah use Frey as a whipping post made more money in his pockets.
But the worst thing about this entire situation? Frey had followers who were in his situation and thought that he could make it, so can they. He even gave talks and according to TMS, people had tattoos of 'Hang On' - Frey's belief saying in his book - printed on their bodies and shirts made up. If Frey lied about his recovery, he let down all those people that believed in him.
On the notion of changing individuals names in books, I’m all for it. If I write the truth about Bad Times with certain people and don’t want to get sued by those certain people, the smart thing to do would be to change the names and probably change characteristics so those people who I’m writing about don’t certainly know that I’m writing about them. Now, making up whole situations and basically lying, not so smart a thing to do.
The major thing I learned while watching the James Frey public dogging unfold was that it’s wrong to lie in your memoir – especially if you’re going to involve anything that leaves a paper trail like old police records. And to take assloads of cocaine. And to go to Jail. But right now, Mr. Frey is lying up in his multi-million dollar apartment in Manhattan just laughing all the way to his fabulous bank.
And for your viewing pleasure, the origins of the word 'Truthiness' as demostrated by Stephen Colbert:
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4 comments:
This particular example raises a real dilemma for writers - and you name it: the age old conflict between integrity (doing the right thing) and fame, fortune and success. As you point out Frey is not exactly suffering financially as a result of his egregious exploitation of memoir. And it is not clear that he really cares (despite the apology). ANd what is worse - it is not clear that his publishers care. So long as the balance sheet (SALES profits - publication costs - litigation = ++++) it seems as if everyone in the publishing industry is AOK.
So should authors really care?
As you suggest - it is up to the individual.
What a curious world we live in.
"Should authors really care?"
Is 2 + 2 = 5?
It could be, as Geroge Orwell pointed out. If the individual does not hold truth as a virtue, then who's to say society will?
As we've found out, $$$ seems to outweigh truth. If the book sales, let us say we're sorry and slap a fiction sticker on it.
Will lies ruin writing? It depands. Only time can really tell, but I hate to say it..the art is losing to profit.
This whole thing has left me wondering if lies have already ruined writing without knowing it. I've been leaving this thought on everyone's blog but it kind of sticks out to me :) When is the truth not the truth? When someone finds out! (Is that not the most nihilistic thing you've ever heard?) I'm almost positive that this was the mindset of Frey, and probably many other non-fiction writers in history - especially biographical and autobiographical writers. The thing is, we just don't know about them, and if not for groups like TSM, the lies just ride a whole lot longer, if not forever.
Today, more than ever, there is the insentive of money to write a best selling book. But even when prose writing began, there was plenty of other insentives - prestige? drama? religious dominance? It probably sounds like I'm trying to downplay what Frey did, but I don't mean to. It's sad that background checks have to be made on works of non-fiction because of fakers. It's even sader to know that there are some that will slip through the cracks.
And thank you thank you thank you for the presentation on truthiness.
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