The Benefits of Villainy?
“In any story, the villain is the catalyst. The hero’s not a person who will bend the rules or show the cracks in his armor. He’s one-dimensional intentionally, but the villain is the person who owns up to what he is and stands by it. He’ll do the things that are sometimes morally questionable, but he does it because it’s his nature to do it…” – Marilyn Manson
Perspective vs. Fact
In writing there is fiction and there is non-fiction. Fiction is the imaginary world while non-fiction is the real, the actual, the factual world. In fiction there are no rules by which writers must abide while fiction assumes one will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The line between fiction and non-fiction has traditionally been a non-negotiable division that separates, without compromise under any circumstances, reality from fantasy. Thus, the simple question emerges: why? Why must writers find themselves beholden to restrictions on their art? In music artists borrow lyrics and sample particular melodies or baselines. While in film or in television productions directors and producers borrow video clips or soundbites only to combine them into a cohesive facsimile of reality. However in writing there is the looming limitation that prevents this type of experimentation, and the answer: the lyric essay.
Well perhaps it is the answer, but in order to fully explore the problem, it is first necessary that it be identified. As such, the notion of perspective versus fact is made relevant. “Perspective” will be used as referring to the author’s willingness or ability to sidestep traditional rules facing non-fiction or to their ability to manipulate facts. “Fact” will be used therefore in the opposite sense, which is how the writer must depend on using factual evidence responsibly and accurately. Thus, at what point does authorial intent take a backseat to factual accuracy or the author’s reliability or the credibility of their perspective; does it ever take a backseat?
Perspective
The Lifespan of a Fact: “Jim: Ok so now I understand. The rules are: There are no rules, just as long as you make it pretty” (D’Agata, 53). In 2003 the monthly magazine Harper’s commissioned John D’Agata, a professor at the University of Iowa, to write for the magazine an essay that would cover the suicide of a boy named Levi Presley. The essay was rejected by Harper’s for its questionable interpretation of facts and tendency to manipulate them, which resulted in the article then being submitted to Believer Magazine where it was reviewed by fact checker Jim Fingal and similarly rejected. Finally, in 2012 the essay was eventually released in the form of a novel, which included both D’Agata’s controversial essay along with Fingal’s extensive fact checking. D’Agata is considered a lyric essayist, which is to say: a writer who combines poetic, essayistic and research based techniques in order to form what has become a recognized subgenre of traditional essay writing. However, though the lyric essay is a form that is recognized its place within the writing community remains uncertain.
Fact
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave : “It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost universally say they are contented, and that their masters are kind” (Douglass, 19). During the 18th and the 19th century the United States of America engaged in the practice of enslaving other human beings because their skin was darker. Wealthy white men had the power and they made the rules by which all others followed. Published in 1845, Frederick Douglass, a former slave, abolitionist, and writer, released an autobiography titled, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written By Himself. This narrative reported on the atrocities taking place in the southern part of the nation and was presented to white New Englanders as a plea for recognition and a demand for definite action. For Douglass facts are his ally in a fight against racism and mistreatment, where an accurate retelling of a slave masters abuse may prove to be the difference between swaying public opinion or preserving the status quo.
Perspective
Reality Hunger: “Art is theft.” (qtd. In Shields) Consisting of twenty-six chapters, listed “a” through “z,” David Shields’ Reality Hunger is a collection of quotes. However, if not for the appendix at the back, knowing the novel consisted entirely of quotes might be difficult to discern. With no acknowledgment, or references provided, the novel simply reads like a curious collection of miniature stories all related or unrelated by some unknown connection. The only narrative provided is that of the reader’s own creation and the tantalizing headers given to each chapter, such as: “books for people who find television too slow,” “autobio,” or “let me tell you what your book is about.” Which, in an interview with Steven Colbert, Shields simply stated that Reality Hunger is, “a call to writers to ignore the laws regarding appropriation, obliterate the distinctions between fiction and non-fiction, and to create new forms for the twenty-first century.”
Fact
Girl, Interrupted: “Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast…the predominant quality of the slow form is viscosity. Experience is thick. Perceptions are thickened and dulled…in contrast…velocity endows every platelet and muscle fiber with a mind of its own, a means of knowing and commenting on its own behavior. There is too much perception….” (Kaysen, 75) As a retrospective on time spent within the confines of a mental health institute Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted is a look into time lost. The novel recounts Kaysen’s time spent at the McLean mental institute where she was placed under the pretense of falling prey to split personality disorder. While Kaysen references sexist statistics, recounts instances of horrendous treatment, and divulges personal medical documents, it is ultimately up to the reader to trust Kaysen or trust the doctors. Kaysen’s story is a retelling of events and through the use of facts the reader is left to interpret the story to the best of their ability. Whether she is insane or merely a victim is question that lingers.
Choosing Sides
The four writers referenced above have all participated in the experiment that is perspective versus fact. D’Agata and Sheilds have been placed under the perspective category while Douglass and Kaysen inhabit the fact category. What then is worth more, authorial intent and the writer’s perspective, or the pursuit of truth and the power of fact.
Choosing Perspective
Dadaism was an art movement that took place during the early 20th century. Today it is simply referred to as Dada and it emerged out of Switzerland around the year 1915 or so, and the movement was led in large part by a man named Marcel Duchamp. In 1917 Duchamp submitted for display, at The Grand Central Palace in New York, what he referred to as a “readymade.” Duchamp’s readymade was a urinal which was turned upside down, written on with a black marker, with the words: “R. Mutt 1917,” and named Fountain. (1) The submission appalled Duchamp’s colleges of the Society of Independent Artists, and after Fountain was refused submission to the First Annual Exhibition, Duchamp promptly resigned as director of the society. While Duchamp may not be a household name in 2015, in many ways his legacy of pushing the boundaries and traditional definition of art is very much alive, and now we generally think of items such as Fountain under the broader category of “modern art.”
Duchamp’s upside-down urinal, D’Agata’s fact bending, as well as Shield’s literary sampling are very similar because they are examples of artists, of different disciplines, expanding the boarders that traditionally defined those disciplines. New ideas or new approaches will always upset the existing order, as the internet has done to traditional cable television networks, but to great benefit of the average person. In other words, there is a benefit to relaxing the strict definitions that we use to define what art is or what high art is, or what the difference is between Levi Presley’s suicidal jump from the Stratosphere Hotel taking seven seconds versus eight. If we look at D’Agata and Shields as purveyors of a new type of writing, which has been labeled the lyric essay, the it could be said that The Lifespan of a Fact and Reality Hunger are very much like Fountain. Just as Duchamp was decried for daring to defile the “purity” of high art with his so-called pseudo artistry so too are D’Agata and Shields testing a new form of art.
Choosing Fact
In Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine, released in 2002, the actions leading to and following the infamous 9/11 world trade towers terrorist attacks are analyzed. The documentary is narrated throughout by Moore and follows the director’s travels throughout the United States as he both confronts the politics directly related to the attacks as well as investigating underlying aspects of American culture such as gun rights. Ultimately the film implicates such figures as then president George W. Bush and the actions of his administration in being culpable in the attack. Likewise, through interviews with various individuals Moore is able to fill out his narrative in a manner that relies on his own interpretation of the events, as narrator, as well as input from government representatives, corporation representatives, celebrities and everyday American citizens. Narration, video clips, soundbites, official and unofficial documents, and testimony all culminate in a report on the events of September 9/11 and its present and long-term effects.
Because Moore is able to demonstrate so clearly the blunders of the United States government in the wake of 9/11 his documentary benefits immensely. Likewise, by exposing his own scars, as a result of being whipped, Douglass is able to substantiate his gruesome claims of slavery in the southern United States. For Kaysen it is the uncensored medical documents that she provides throughout Girl, Interrupted that provide an added layer of factual evidence to her narrative. Furthermore, each individual provides their own form of testimony as they describe the events of their captivity and the mistreatment faced by each. Without factual evidence both Douglass and Kaysen’s writing loses a great deal of persuasiveness. The rhetorical value of substantiating a claim with fact based evidence is paramount in convincing individuals of the seriousness of an event. In the same way that Douglass or Kaysen’s mistreatment is more fully appreciated upon seeing the evidence, the events of 9/11 become more grounded in reality when one reviews footage of the towers crumbling.
Choosing Neither
For both Douglass and Kaysen there is lost time that can never be regained. For both individuals there is the pain both mentally and physically from being ostracized from the rest of society. For both individuals there is the negative effect of captivity on their education. For both individuals there is the effect of captivity on the social, and emotional aspects of their lives. As such, the power of both Douglass and Kaysen’s writing is that it is able to broaden the definition of what slavery is by exposing the individual factors that break down a person who is forcibly separated from the normal, social, emotional, and free experience of society. Both writers succeed therefore in altering the readers perspective and forcing them to focus not on the writer and the writer’s experience, but on the events themselves and their implications. In effect, relying on fact, while beneficial as rhetorical tool, is ultimately not what convinces the reader that they should care.
Likewise, for D’Agata and Shields there remains a similar conundrum which is that manipulation can work against the writer. In the same way that Douglass and Kaysen can be seen to utilize factual information as a rhetorical tool to advance their position, in manipulating facts, as D’Agata does, or by lying to the reader, as Shields does, the opposite effect can occur which is the mistrust of the reader.
Villainy?
As stated by Marilyn Manson, it so often seem that it is up to the villains to push boundaries and break rules. While rules are so often put in place for the purpose of protection, they seem out of place within the realm of writing. While it may be evident that writers such as D’Agata and Shields have successfully managed to expand the boundaries of nonfiction writing there will always remain the necessary requirement that in order to manipulate facts one first needs facts to manipulate. Similarly, for Douglass and Kaysen, while a power rhetorical tool, facts can only provide the reader with a basic understanding of the narrative.
Ultimately, perspective and fact must be considered two weights placed either side a weigh scale. While it may be that we depend upon villains to break rules, and heroes to uphold sacred values, it is in the everyday average individual that we find an equilibrium between the two.
Works Cited
D’Agata, John, and Jim Fingal. The Lifespan of A Fact. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 15-123. Print.
Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written By Himself.” ibiblio. N.p., 1845. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf>.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. 4-169. Print.
Shields, David. Reality Hunger. second ed. Toronto: Random House Inc., 2010. Print.