Updike and Vargas-Llosa on Fiction

I find that I have far greater tolerance for John Updike in nonfiction than I do in fiction.  I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that mystery; however, until I do, I'll go on enjoying the nonfiction and sharing what I find fascinating.

from "Fiction: A Dialogue"
in More Matter
John Updike

Put it this way: Fictional persons are objectifications of actual impression of life received by the author. Because they are not actual, the author is free to invade their privacy and confide to us their thoughts and sensations, however evanescent and trivial. Thus he . . . provides the reader with an image of life more close-textured and vivid than any reality-bound genre, such as history, sociology, and even autobiography can provide. Fiction is realer than real, one could say.

and contrast that with Mario Vargas-Llosa

From Making Waves
Margio Vargas-Llosa

Because it is not the story which in essence decides the truth or lies of a work of fiction, but the fact that this story is written rather the lived, that it is made of words and not concrete experiences. Facts suffer a profound change when they are transformed into words.

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