« "How to Build a Better Mouse Trap" | Main | Lefty Blogs Chart Course for Future »
18 June 2009 6:58 PM
Rearranging the Bookstore
Fans of literary nonfiction -- or if you prefer, long form non-fiction or new journalism -- know that upon entering most bookstores, it can be very difficult to find what you seek. Fiction is arranged alphabetically by author, so if I know I am an Ernest Hemingway fan, I can easily find more of his work.
But what if I am a huge John McPhee fan? He's written on topics from oranges to the Swiss army to the Alaskan wilderness. In a store where non-fiction is arranged by subject, where do I find his stuff?
The great non-fiction writer Lawrence Weschler, a onetime professor of mine, proposes a rather drastic step that would serve as a solution.
I want to get rid of the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. The class I teach at NYU is called "The Fiction of Nonfiction", and it is less a class about reporting methods than it is about the fictional methods that can be applied to nonfictional writing. It presupposes that the writer will try to be fair, but also acknowledges that there is no such thing as objectivity, and revels in that fact. Then we get down to business and talk about all the stuff that's interesting: form, freedom, irony, voice, tone, structure. We are looking at masters--Ian Frazier, Jane Kramer, John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, Joseph Mitchell--and if you look at their books, absolutely they are works of literature.
What drives me crazy is that my books are spread all over the bookstore. My Boggs is in Economics, my A Miracle, A Universe is in Latin America. This book here (holds up a copy of Vermeer in Bosnia), who the hell knows where they're gonna put this. I was in a Barnes & Noble somewhere and looked for Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders and found it in New Age Psychedelics. And it's not just me; the same is true of Ian Frazier and Jane Kramer and so forth. The point is that they should be in alphabetical order, in Literature. It's not just that my books have a super-plenitude of meanings, but that they are designed to illuminate each other. Boggs and Mr. Wilson, for example, even have the same type face, the same trim size. They're meant to be read side-by-side, but no one ever knows that.Kudos are owed to Kramer Books in Washington DC for being the rare shop that has a section for the sort of nonfiction discussed above. Good idea!
Post a comment