Lawrence Weschler on the Fiction of Non-Fiction

[salvorhardin]

Joseph Mitchell and Ryszard Kapuscinski were both non-fiction writers who cut their teeth as reporters but went on to create some of the most celebrated narrative non-fiction of this century; full of indelible characters, plots, settings and dialogue. But both have also been dogged by accusations that they committed journalistic sins by doctoring dialogue, manufacturing scenes and creating composite characters. For Bob these were unforgiveable transgressions but Lawrence Weschler, himself a celebrated author of narrative non-fiction, argues that the problem actually lies with Bob’s rules of truth and consequences.

Listen now or read the transcript Monday afternoon: http://onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/12/24/06

Should journalists and essayists who write narrative non-fiction tell things exactly as they happened and report exactly what was said? Or is it not only OK, but necessary, to paraphrase or even invent what goes inside the quotation marks? How about audio journalists who slice, dice and rearrange audio so it tells a better story (ala NPR)?

While listening to this story, one has to wonder to what extent Bob Garfield edited Lawrence Weschler in this interview. :D