A Momentary Taste of Being

Best American Essays--The Free Way The best way for me, because I never finish one of these books--I always intend to, but I'm so slow at reading nonfiction that by the time I get around to the last essay, the next year's is out.

But it's worth hearing again: an apology for fiction excerpt: Just about every literary nerd has had this conversation at least once (and I had one recently): Me: Oh, you're a reader - cool! What do you like to read? Non-Literary Nerd: Non-fiction, almost exclusively. Me: You don't like fiction? NLN: Nope. There's too much to learn about the real world to read stuff that's made up. Me: Sure, dude. I've said it, nearly everyone I know who reads fiction has said it, and it is ultimately unpersuasive because those who read nonfiction do not really do so to gain information about the world--such information is of its time and of the prejudice of the writer and ultimately subject to revision and rerevision.  Truth is, most of us don't really know why we do much of anything.  There are relatively few choices that we could explain rationally, and of those few, what we choose for recreation may be the least explained choice of all. But it never fails ...

Nonfiction today falls into two broad categories--descriptive and interpretive.  There are overlaps and crossovers.  Few works are strictly one or the other.  The type I have the least problem with are descriptive--long treatises of taxonomy (but not phylogeny), or guidebooks to minerals, rocks, shells, sands, dust, dust mites, 14th century clothes fastening devices--all of these are filled with rich and fascinating information and not really subject to much debate.  You might not agree with such and such a taxon or taxonomic division, but it's based in something measurable and debatable. On the interpretive side, however, I find that whenever I finish a book that purports to give me the "history" of anything, I find myself dubious.  For example, on the issue of Pope Pius XII, I find it extremely difficult to believe any of the detractors or many of the supporters.  I get the sense that the truth, slippery though it may be falls into the cracks between th...

The nonfiction and fiction theme is a subject I come back to time and again. It is a subject that intrigues me for the claims on both sides.  I am a partisan of the claims for fiction, but as for nonfiction, I must admit to some skepticism. For example, people tell me that when they (or I) read nonfiction, I am getting facts.  The same holds true of fiction--fictional worlds are composed of carefully selected facts.  The New York of fiction and that of nonfiction may be very similar realms.  However, the advantage of the New York of fiction is that you know it is made up.  You don't have to ask why Battery Park City abuts the Lincoln Center--it just does in that world.  On the other hand, in nonfiction, facts are selected as well.  In a book about New York City, the writer will choose to tell me some things and leave out others.  In some cases these are details irrelevant to the thrust of what he or she is trying to get across.  In other ca...