Birthday Book Recs 31/50 : The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
Birthday Book Recs: 31/50
The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
I both love and hate when “FACT CHECK!” gets wheeled out. Although it is a good thing when people try to get correct information, flinging around “fact check!” can annoy me because a) it cheapens what is an actual job, with systems and protocols. I know this because I’ve done it. But also b) Declaring something so is not “fact checking,” and that’s bad news (literally) … particularly if you are a person in power. Like maybe someone in charge of a country.
What do we do with a fact? How is a fact used or manipulated? Can it stand alone or does it have to be in context of something? Maybe you’re old enough to remember when Bill Clinton famously quipped, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” I mean, technically that was perhaps a valid question, but…
If you’d like to see for yourself the work that goes into verifying the “facts” of a story, then check out this fascinating — and sometimes maddening — foray into the back-and-forth between a writer and the intern who was assigned to fact check his piece. It’s an essay — literary/creative nonfiction about a teenager who jumped off a roof in Las Vegas — not a timely news story. Does a writer (in this case D’Agata) get to take creative license when he is not a straight-up reporter or journalist?
Each page shows some of D’Agata’s original draft in black, but pages are more often than not drenched in red, showing the communication between fact-fanatic Fingal and the subject of his quest (or maybe interrogation, according to D’Agata). They get on each other’s nerves:
John: “My job is not to re-create a world that already exists, holding up a mirror to the reader’s experience in hopes that it rings true. If a mirror were a sufficient means of handling human experience, I doubt that our species would have invented literature.”
Jim: “Note to self: John is not a journalist. Also not a nonfiction writer. He is, however, a writer of journalistic-ish texts that are not necessarily fiction. Got it.”
(PS: Fingal was played by Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway. Fact confirmed ✅)
(PPS: Bookends that mimic our house made by Matt!)
You can find all my 50th Birthday Book Recommendations HERE.
originally published on instagram