“A fiction is forever a fiction, and everything that was will remain as it was eternally.” — William H. Gass, “There Was an Old Woman Who,” from Tests of Time
Ain’t no fixin none of that
April 2nd, 2012 · 3 Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit · William H. Gass
3 responses so far ↓
1 Averil Dean // Apr 2, 2012 at 6:40 am
I love this, it’s so true. We armor ourselves when we write fiction; we can never be proven wrong.
2 Tetman Callis // Apr 2, 2012 at 7:15 am
And we can never be proven right, but so what? We know when we’re right, and so do our readers. They wouldn’t read us if we were wrong.
One of the main reasons I chose to write fiction instead of journalism or history is that the only facts I have to get right are the facts internal to the story. In fiction, following upon what Count Basie said of music, “If it sounds true, it is true.”
3 CJ // Apr 2, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Yes
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