Lie To Me

My name isn't Heather Elaine McElhatton. I was born Heather Elaine Pedersen and then adopted by my semi-evil stepfather who legally changed my name, so my birth record now says he's my biological father, but he isn't. Legally I mean.

My biological father is Arthur Pedersen, but I couldn't prove that to you with any state documents. He's been dead for twenty years and his name has been stricken from all legal records. He doesn't exist except in my memory, and if someone wanted to fact-check this, they couldn't.

So what is the truth? Who is my father? There's my personal version, and Cook County's legal version, and the two ain't friendly.

As a citizen of flexible truth, I want to go on tedious record as being generally jubilant over watching the slow demise of the "accurate memoir."

James Frey was whip-switched on national TV for exaggerating his addiction, Margaret Seltzer drawn and quartered over weaving a story so visceral it fooled everyone from her publisher to the L.A. Times, and now Sebastian Horsley was denied entry into America because the facts in his sin-festooned memoir could not be proven or disproven when customs Googled him.

Liars liars everywhere! Forget Frey's book helped thousands of addicts until Oprah castrated him! Forget Jones was praised for her lyrical writing until we found out she wasn't actually a criminal and didn't really own a blood-soaked bandana! Now it's bad writing! Trash!

Only -- aren't we killing the leopard because of his spots? The essential nature of the nasty beasty? We're writers. Born liars. People who get their moral turpitudes in a bunch over "untrue" memoirs are living in some alternate fairy tale land where there is only one truth and one truth only. As we all know, there are many truths, multiplying every second and giving birth to new demon baby truths. Your truth isn't my truth and Sebastian Horsley's truth is bloody fun to read, whether it's true or not.

And this is where I'm going to stand firm. Don't take a good story away from me. I don't care if it's true or untrue, fiction, non-fiction or a stained Cuisinart manual. I don't care if you file it the "Super True" or "Kinda True" or "Whopper Lies" section of the bookstore. If it's a good story, I want to read it. To swallow it whole, pretty little lies and all. I don't care what plate my meal is plunked down on or if the waiter tells me it's hot. Just gimmee.

All this hoopla over Margaret Seltzer' book, and now I can't even buy it? I'm enraged. That is my spectacle to behold. My disaster to gawk at. Her publisher had no right to take a tasty treat away from me. If I want to spend $14.95 on a pack-o-lies, then I should be able to. I can still buy a carton of Marlboro Reds and a pint of Smirnoff for the road, so why not a paper wad of sweet sweet cinnamon lies?

"It's better to be quotable than honest," Horsley told Time Out London in February. "I don't speak, I quote. I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet."

Full disclosure: Sebastian Horsley and I have the same publisher at HarperCollins. When Carrie Kania discovered the manuscript last year, she sent me an early review copy and it never even occurred to me to ask if it was "true." I guess because I didn't care, and don't care and won't. It's a great story either way, and the label someone slaps on it means nothing.

If a book makes me feel something, then that emotion is true to me. That writing transported me somewhere I hadn't been before, and I don't need to know if it "actually happened." It actually happened on paper, and that's good enough. Better than good enough. It's brilliant, because if a liar can lie so well s/he fools everyone, shouldn't we be issuing some kind of an award, rather than apologizing?

"God bless America," Horsley said, "land of the free, but sadly not the land of the depraved." He noted the resignation of Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York, in the wake of his prostitute procurement plan. "I'm not a politician, I'm an artist," Mr. Horsley said. "Depravity is part of the job description."

Kania had planned a big party for Horsley in New York, and when she got the phone call from Newark saying, "They won't let him in," she threw the party anyway. After all, HarperCollins still had a lot to celebrate. Not just the publication of a great book, but the accidental marketing strategy of the year. The good old reliable INS in its attempt to keep depravity out of the country -- just made it a bestseller.

Comments

[GetAGrip]

You really don't know how to read.

A sophisticated and educated reader reads critically and does not take kindly to an author attempting to hoodwink him/her.

Bottom line, be honest.

[DasBoot]

Heather, your post is an exercise in reckless, self-indulgent solipsism. So if it makes you feel good, anything is justified? If Frey, Seltzer and the other cheats had any trust in the power of their own writing, why did they have to lie about their books? Couldn't they have just come out and said "this is fiction"? No, they had to give it the extra kick, by pretending it was all true. That fact alone demolishes your thesis that correspondence to facts does not matter in writing.

[django707]

Anybody who has taken an interest in history and delved a bit into the subject has discovered that truth is not as it appears or presented.
Once an idea is filtered through the pen of the author it enters the mirky world of subjectivity. "Facts" can be twisted and reinterpreted to represent most anything. Are they true? Sometimes.
Non-fiction frequently contains more dishonesty than fiction. Where should the line be drawn and who decides?
I have never read James Frey, but many people felt that his book spoke straight to their aching souls. He found some powerful truth in his exaggerated pain. That truth that resonates so deeply within us is real. That is why we respond to a great piece of writing. Upon learning that the story was mostly made up, does the deeper truth go away? No.
Finding soul depth is the task of every writer and if he or she manages to do that they have transcended "fact" and discovered truth.
As a culture awash in dishonesty presented as facts, we need to grab our deeper truths wherever we can find them and hold on tight.
Heather, I couldn't agree more.

[elizaW]

django707

Here's a scenario for you. You're in a relationship (either personal or business) with someone who consciously deceives you to such a degreee you can never trust them again. According to your scenario that's no big deal if their lies speak to your aching soul. I'd call that a definition of masochism, self-denial, self-sabbotaging etc. The list goes on. Obviously you, Heather and others believe the line between truth and lies is not worth defending. Maybe that murky in between zone appeals to you. By the way it's hard to have soul depth when you've sold you soul to get a book deal. Now that's a powerful truth you'd probably prefer to ignore.

[OtayPanky]

Stop making sense, otay?

[OtayPanky]

And that's why it was OK for BushCo to screw around with the intelligence in order to invade Iraq. It's all subjective anyway, and he had a deep feeling about it.

Good for you!

[DasBoot]

The lies certainly made the neo-cons feel good about themselves. That made it all worth it, didn't it?

[OtayPanky]

Exactly so.

[Phaedrusnyc]

Should it matter whether a story is "true" or not? If you care about writers working hard to craft good, "real" stories, it should. Why? Because stories that are supposedly "true" can get away with ridiculous plot twists, cliched motivations and dialogue, and unrealistic situations that would simply never be accepted in fiction- or would, at the very least, be mocked for being hackwork. A writer of fiction can work less hard to make his story "real" if he simply SAYS its "real"- and the Oprahs of the world and their followers will eat it up.
If we live in a world that considers fiction "less important" than non-fiction, a fiction writer, whether he or she writes well or not, ends up in a bind. When publishers believe it is easier to promote "true stories" (and it probably is- call it "The Oprah Effect"), then it follows that a desperate writer of fiction who hasn't had luck selling his or her manuscript might decide that changing a character's name to one's own and claiming that the work is based on "reality" is the proper course. Good fiction and good nonfiction both have a place in the world- many times the best fiction is much more "true" than the best memoirs. But, as long as we allow untrue "true" stories, and as long as the standard of writing in a so-called "memoir" has to meet a lower bar than that of "fiction," good writers and good readers will suffer.

[DocManhattan]

What a very risky way of thinking, Heather. Fiction is about emotion and that's fine, as long as we know it's fiction. These fake memoirs you mentioned were all purporting to offer their readers real life-lessons, applicable in the real world. Except that the stories weren't true and the lessons were wishful thinking.

[abliss2379]

Are you as flexible with what's printed in newspapers, which are ostensibly fact-based? Back in the 80's, the Washington Post won a Pulitzer for a story later shown to be fabricated. Great reading, though, I'm sure. The NY Times has fired a few people for fabricating, and don't get me started on coverage during the runup to the Iraq War. Would you also be this open-minded were it your child making up stories to make his or her home life more interesting ... the possibilities are endless.

[OtayPanky]

It's called truth in advertising. It's a new concept. Wrap your head around it.

[elizaW]

Here's what you should be aware of. There are great novels out there that don't get published because the publishing world doesn't know how to market them. Non-fiction is easier to market, to get press for etc. So all those novelists who don't lie and pretend their work is factual are punished and those who do lie and fake a memoir are rewarded even though their actual book may be less skillful and interesting than those fictional works which are not picked up. By supporting the liars you are penalizing those who tell the truth and though this may not affect you personally when it comes to books I bet there are areas in your life where the big lie does impact you. And what goes around, comes around. What side are you on? You say James Frey helped addicts. I say he's a fraud and his lies have made this world even more toxic. To manipulate people by pretending to share their pain is no small thing. It is corrosive and inspires resentment and hostility. So i ask you again. Are you on the side of those who deceive in order to make a buck and get attention. Or are you on the side of those who believe in the value of truth?

[Desiderata]

Of course a lot of writers lie, but their books are marked as fiction and placed in the section for novels.

[DemandTruth]

Sorry, but there's a difference between fiction and non-fiction. I don't care what you write, but there is such a thing (and rightly so) as a journalistic standard. When you write "non-fiction" that turns out to be partly not true - you have screwed up - lied to your audience. They even have laws and standards about this stuff. Reference "libel/slander" and "plagiarism". If you want to write a semi-historical, semi-non-fictional account about yourself great! And if it helps people great! But you need to make sure you correctly label what you are writing. Because making stuff up in a book labeled "non-fiction" is not right and not trustworthy, and tarnishes writers and writing in general. I don't care what you write - but don't tell me it's true if it's not. Don't tell me it happened if it didn't. Tell me it's fiction - I'll still appreciate it (maybe even more)...