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Lines in the Mud: Exploring Creative Non-Fiction
Aaron Pope
I learn by going where I have to go.
-Theodore Roethke, "The Waking"
What the hell is creative non-fiction? Is it the same as the non-fiction novel, or literary non-fiction - and how about that 'new' journalism?
"I'm confused," said the writer.
"I'm confused too," said the reader.
* * *
We're all a little bit confused. OK. But fear not, my children - help is on the way. Now. Right now! Grab your tea and crumpets and let's go - let's clarify some of this mish-mash bullshit. Or let's confuse things even more, but let's go anyway. Time is ticking. Let's go! Are you listening? Good. Buckle up.
SO, WHAT IS IT?
Creative non-fiction (CNF) is the same beast as the non-fiction novel, literary non-fiction, and 'new' journalism. Trust me - you'll save yourself a lot of grief and confusion if you remember this. People will argue with you and say that Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is fiction. Just smile and agree with them - and never speak to them again. They're wrong (I think).
"There is a line between fiction and non-fiction. We all have our different ideas about where that line will be," says Lee Gutkind, founder and editor of the Creative Nonfiction journal (CSPAN).
As a genre, CNF is very broad. The problem is finding that place between fiction and non-fiction where imagination meets prose and then runs into fact.
"It's simpler than one might think," says Stephen Minot, author of Literary Nonfiction: The Fourth Genre. "Literary nonfiction is distinguished by three basic characteristics: It is based on actual events, characters, and places; it is written with a special concern for language; and it tends to be more informal and personal than other types of nonfiction writing" (1).
In other words, when you pick up Jann Arden's journal at your local bookstore - beware! There is nothing creative about it. It's simply non-fiction. Hard news is non-fiction too - take this excerpt from The Navigator newspaper for example:
Representatives from various organizations including the RCMP, Canada Customs and Revenue, CSIS, and the Vancouver Police Department, will be at Malaspina on Friday, Nov.8 as part of the 2002 Criminology Career Fair and Speaker Series" (Pope, vol. 34, 2).
Non-fiction is just the facts, please. Imagine, if you will, a section of Jann Arden's journal: "I woke up early this morning and drove to the grocery store for some milk." OK. This is non-fiction. Based on fact, yes. A special concern for language, no. A CNF writer might turn this morning foray into something like this: "The sun streaked through my blinds like long white fingers. I rolled out of bed and dashed to the local grocery like a hungry beggar with a dime." Based on fact, yes. A special concern for language, yes. A fiction writer, on the other hand, might turn this journey into something very different: "I woke this morning to the sound of laughter, but soon realized it was the TV (I live alone). I was thirsty. Enough of this eleven-day fast, I said, and ran twelve kilometres to the nearest corner store for a carton of milk. Chocolate milk. And as I handed the money to the cashier, a man dressed like Dumbo came running through the door. He grabbed my milk and ran away, laughing." And on and on and on and on. Based on fact, not really. A special concern for language, not really.
JUST THE FACTS, PLEASE?
Lee Gutkind says that CNF writers are "dedicated to the truth" (CSPAN). Interesting, because now we have this notion of truth to bang around. (Where is Socrates?) What is truth? [And you thought this was going to be fun, didn't you? Go get another crumpet, and put some scotch into that tea-cup this time!]
The Canadian Oxford Paperback Dictionary defines truth as "the quality or state of being true; the matter or circumstance as it really is; a true statement; something held or accepted as true" (1132). And while this definition seems to help, it doesn't really define truth, does it? No. Truth is subjective. What is true to you, may not be true to me. What Jean Chrétien says is true, may not be true at all. You dig?
Perhaps it's better (and closer to the 'truth' - ha!) to say that CNF writers are dedicated to a truth - a larger truth. In his book Fables of Fact, John Hellman elaborates on this question of objectivity:
Modern quantum physics has shown that even the most delicate instrument of observation necessarily alters the phenomenon observed. The same is true for any reporter, no matter how unobtrusive he may be. To ignore this through the conventions of objective narration is to deny part of the reality of the event observed. (6)
Truth is distorted as soon as it is discovered.
OK, so where am I going with all of this? Well, the point is that CNF does not simply rely on so-called facts or truths. These matters are left in the deft hands of the writer/reporter. A CNF writer is not content to simply transcribe an interview and consider it the truth - a CNF writer looks deeper: What did he really mean by . . . ? What was she laughing at when . . . ?
CNF writers often immerse themselves in the story. They become part of the action. For example, a newspaper reporter might do fine to interview a fisherman about fishing, and take his word. A CNF writer, on the other hand, will insist on going fishing with the fisherman. Mere reportage is not good enough, and not true enough. Nothing is closer to the truth than actual experience, and that is where the best CNF lives.
Tom Wolfe was able to write the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by hanging out with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their day-glo ride across the United States for over a year. Sure, Wolfe could have waited until Kesey and his entourage returned home, but would it have been as good, or as true, a story? No, of course not. In a promotional blurb on the inside cover of the The Electic Kool-Aid Acid Test, Newsweek says, "Among journalists, Wolfe is a genuine poet; what makes him so good is his ability to get inside, to not merely describe (although he is a superb reporter) but to get under the skin of a phenomenon and transmit its metabolic rhythm" (italics mine).
Immersion. George Plimpton could have simply interviewed the players and coaches from the Detroit Lions to get the lowdown on professional football, but instead he lived, trained, and scrimmaged with them. He even appeared as their quarterback in an exhibition game! Plimpton! A lowly writer for the Paris Review - a quarterback. But hot damn, his book Paper Lion was more true and revealing than anything written about professional football then, and now. And it was no fluke. Plimpton knew the best way to get at the heart of a story. He kept a notebook and pen in his helmet. Jesus! You want a football story - go play football.
I could go on and on like a novelist about all the wonderful CNF writers out there. But I won't. I'll save them for you to discover. (Check out the bibliography at the end of this chapter). However, we should have a look at some CNF pointers (just in case you'd like to try out your own pen).
HOW TO WRITE CNF
1) Find a good story/topic that is going to be relevant and interesting to somebody aside from yourself. That's great that you've been a cook for the past ten years - but is your experience worth telling? And can you do it creatively?
2) All stories contain conflict. Does yours have one? Check out Aristotle's six fundamental conflicts. Does your story resemble one of these?
- human against human
- human against nature
- human against him/herself
- human against society
- human against god
- human against machine
3) Research. Follow your subjects around for a day or a year or more. Talk to them. Record them. Watch them. Look for details. Make notes. Get involved in what they're doing. Watch them again. Repeat.
4) Read other CNF writers. See what forms are out there. What form will your story take? CNF often borrows fiction techniques: narrative, setting, description, figurative language, action, conflict, dialogue, point-of-view. All of these elements make a good story, but they have to be based on fact. How loosely or how closely you stick to the facts is your business. Remember: you can't please everybody. There will always be people who say Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is fiction.
5) Remember that you're not writing an academic paper. Lose the semi-colons and therefores - save them for something scholarly. CNF must be engaging, personal, and informal. There is nothing informal and personal about semi-colons. Leave the stuffiness at the door, please. Keep out!
SOME TIDBITS TO MUNCH ON WHILE YOU'RE WRITING
Define "truth" for yourself, or at least for your story. What truth are you trying to get at with your story? Can exaggerations of the truth actually help you get closer to a larger truth? Hunter S. Thompson thinks so. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson's alter-ego Raoul Duke says, "Terrible things were happening all around us. Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman's neck, the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge - impossible to walk on it, no footing at all" (24). Now you can dismiss this acid-imagery for simple shock-value, or you can call it irresponsible journalism - you can call it "shit" for all I care. But I think you might be missing the point in doing so: Thompson is a careful writer included in the World Library between Thackeray and Tolstoy. Why include bizarre fabulist imagery if it doesn't contribute to something larger?
Presenting journalistic events through the perceptions of this maddened, even hallucinating, persona, Thompson presents his black humorist vision of those actual events without violating their actuality. Like a mad seer or a holy fool, this persona [Duke] can reveal aspects of events not readily apparent to those with normal perception . . . Thompson is free to present journalistic material through the licenses of parody. He can flatten and warp his representations of actuality without falsifying them, because he has clearly represented them as products of a flattening and warping mind. (Hellman 69)
In a similar vein, a recent "Non-Fiction" work called Furry Creek by Keith Harrison incorporates court documents and extensive interviewing with fictionalized characters, scenes, and dialogue. Harrison and his publisher (Oolichan Books) maintain that the book is non-fiction. Kate Braid, on the other hand, says, "I would definitely and with no hesitation say Furry Creek is fiction. It has invented characters and created dialogue." Braid is an instructor of poetry and CNF at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, BC. She is also responsible for a small blurb of praise on the back cover of Furry Creek, which reads: "The novel [Furry Creek] ties the threads of her [Pat Lowther's] life to those of fictional characters." Braid was surprised when I told her that Furry Creek was, indeed, non-fiction. Myself, I believe the work should be shelved under the banner of CNF. It is certainly not fiction - and it is not non-fiction - so what is it? CNF, my children. CNF. Nobody says it better than Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard in their book Writing Creative Nonfiction:
Arguing about how to classify a published work can become tedious and unproductive. Far more important is the question of how you as a writer are going to approach a subject . . . . When a writer feels an obligation to be true to actual people, events, and places while at the same time presenting his or her own feelings honestly, the work will be creative non-fiction. (5).
NOW CLEAN UP YOUR CRUMBS!
OK, we're home, children. Wake up, damnit! And wipe those smirks from your faces. I know you've been drinking - I can smell it on your breath! Now clean up those crumbs, and unbuckle your seatbelts; it's time to go inside.
* * *
"I'm less confused," said the writer.
"I'm less confused too," said the reader.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CSPAN. Interview with Lee Gutkind: "What is Creative Non-Fiction?" Creative Non-Fiction. (http://creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/whatiscnf.htm)
Forché, Carolyn, and Philip Gerard. Writing Creative Nonfiction. Cincinnati, Ohio: Story Press, 2001.
Gerard, Philip. Creative Nonfiction. Cincinnati, Ohio: Story Press, 1996.
Harrison, Keith. Furry Creek. Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1999.
Hellman, John. Fables of Fact. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
Minot, Stephen. Literary Nonfiction: The Fourth Genre. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. 1973. New York: Warner Books, 1983.
---. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 1971. New York: Vintage Books, 1989
---. The Great Shark Hunt. 1979. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.
---. Hell's Angels. 1966. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.
---. Screwjack. 1991. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Van Luven, Lynne, ed. Going Some Place. Regina, SK: Coteau Books, 2000.
Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. 1968. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.
---. The Kandy-Kolared Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. 1963. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.
---. The New Journalism. 1973. London: Picador, 1975.
---. The Pump House Gang. 1968. New York: Bantam, 1978.
Zinsser, William. Writing Well. 1976. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Also worth checking out . . .
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The White Album by Joan Didion
The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer
Paper Lion by George Plimpton
Snowblind by Robert Sabbag
The Overreaachers by Gay Talese
The Curse of Lono by Hunter S. Thompson
Other authors . . .
Douglas Coupland
P. J. O'Rourke
Michael Ondaatje
George Orwell
Studs Terkel
E.B. White
© Aaron Pope 2002
Fair Dealing applies