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[CCBC-Net] Creative nonfiction
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From: Patricia Curtis Pfitsch <pfitsch>
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 15:51:30 -0600
And then there's the whole issue of objectivity vs. subjectivity. We tend to assume that fiction is subjective while nonfiction is objective, that it's possible to present 'the facts' without coming from some perspective or viewpoint. But no matter how hard a writer tries, it's impossible to be totally objective. Events, and the interpretation of those events, are always different depending on where the observer is standing.
In some ways, what we're calling 'creative nonfiction' could even be more honest than the other kind, because that label at least admits the fact that there's a writer behind the words who has a particular perspective.
Patty Pfitsch
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 15:51:30 -0600
And then there's the whole issue of objectivity vs. subjectivity. We tend to assume that fiction is subjective while nonfiction is objective, that it's possible to present 'the facts' without coming from some perspective or viewpoint. But no matter how hard a writer tries, it's impossible to be totally objective. Events, and the interpretation of those events, are always different depending on where the observer is standing.
In some ways, what we're calling 'creative nonfiction' could even be more honest than the other kind, because that label at least admits the fact that there's a writer behind the words who has a particular perspective.
Patty Pfitsch
-- Patricia Curtis Pfitsch http://www.pfitsch.com from Simon & Schuster: Keeper of the Light The Deeper Song Riding the Flume (coming Fall 2002!)Received on Tue 02 Apr 2002 03:51:30 PM CST
