Week Seven Prompt Response

     The article "A Million Little Lies" details the lies and inconsistencies found in James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. This book was published as a non-fiction memoir, but further investigation has shown that many of the events in the book were either greatly embellished or completely fictitious. Oprah Winfrey endorsed this book through her book club, without knowing of the fictitious nature of the book. As a result, the book became a best-seller, and James Frey became a celebrity.

     This is an interesting situation, as it is important to study it in order to prevent a repeat of this event. First, it is obvious that lying, and writing fiction as non-fiction is immoral. James Frey should have written a fiction novel, or told the whole truth. Some would argue that it is acceptable to embellish a non-fiction story slightly for the purposes of entertainment, but in my opinion, if the story is not interesting enough as-is, then it does not need to be published. 

      Non-fiction is important literature, not for its entertainment value, but for its ability to reveal truth to readers. If we cannot trust non-fiction literature, then laypeople have no trusted sources of information. Experts have academic journals, with tested accuracy that they can trust, but this is targeted toward experts alone. Common nonfiction literature takes these expert sources, and repackages them into an easy-to-understand format. Without common nonfiction, experts maintain their intelligence, while laypeople cannot improve their understanding of anything beyond personal experience. 

    Does James Frey's lie alone hurt anyone? Possibly some of the people mentioned in his tale, but not the general public. But when we allow the line between fiction and nonfiction to blur, we are dooming ourselves to an information vacuum. If no nonfiction literature can be trusted, then why should we bother reading nonfiction at all?