This collection here is the companion to D’Agata’s The Lost Origin of
The Essay. If we were to get an inkling about what exactly an essay
is, based on what D’agata thinks, it’s something that has to do more
with art and less with fact. This belief is echoed in his writings in
The Lost Origins of the Essay. Something having to do with the
separation of art and commerce without quoting him directly. And
somewhere, between both of these books, is non-fiction, a word or
median or form or what have you, that has no distinguishing
characteristics that separate it from the essay. D’agata has a
preoccupation with fact, and he wants us to know that facts are gooey
things prone to abstraction and misrepresentation.
In 2003 an essay by D’Agata was rejected by a magazine that
commissioned it due to “factual inaccuracies.” That same essay laid
the ground work for another collection of his called About A Mountain,
and was eventually picked up by The Believer, but went through arduous
revisionss with The Believers fact checker Jim Fingel. We’re not going
to read that book, because we don’t want John D’Agatas opinion to be
the only authority in this project, although we do respect it.
D’Agata is great about using some direct quotes that are short and
crisp and say everything they need to say in one statement. On Facts,
again, he quotes Emerson. “There are no facts, only art.” Hard to say
if this is true or not, or hard to say if true is even true or not.
Regardless, D’Agata has a way of framing an argument that only offers
up more questions instead of easy answers. Sometimes this can be
incredibly frustrating. Philosophy and existentialism are frustrating.
Sometimes you just want nails and a hammer and the belief or knowledge
or fact or whatever that you can pound nails into a piece of wood in a
certain way and it will build shelter no question asked.
In a note to the reader at the beginning of this anthology: “[Some of
the writers} have something in common beyond North America, besides
the late 20th Century; they have debt, nerve, good hair, nightmares,
cars that smell like McDonalds sometimes…I’m telling you this now out
the start of our journey, because I know you are expecting such facts
from nonfiction.” He Continues, “But henceforth please do not consider
these “nonfictions.” I want you preoccupied with art in this book, not
with facts for the sake of facts.”
So maybe there is a distinction between the essay and nonfiction, or
maybe D’agata is making the argument that nonfiction and the essay
represent a black and white that could not possibly account for the
complexity of human expression and that big word art? Blah-Blah.
Banal. These are literary binaries, apt to change. Everything changes.
So maybe he is write…ds Somewhere in here, Fiction has to exist in
order for there to be non-fiction and fiction, by definition, is
something made up or not real, but we can all agree that it’s
impossible to omit subjective interpretations and experiences from
fiction.
And where does our essay fit into all of this? Do we yet have any
clear representation as to what an essay is? D’Agata wants to make
clear that it’s art, and in this wonderful collection he has writings
from some brilliantly crazy people: One spoke at the 2013 Evergreen
graduation, lambasting the school, and successfully pissing off every
single person in the audience, libertarian grandparents and democrats
alike (thank you Sherman Alexie!). One essay is written by a literary
idol of mine, whom I promised myself I would stop referencing first
thing when I went on dates with people. I think, for the sake of all
the males I’ve referenced, when I read an analyze the essays in this
collection, I’ll try and focus more on the women. Yes, that’s how it
has to be. Not because they’re women, but because I do want a
different perspective from my own, which whether I like it or not will
involve the subconscious pretenses of having a penis and white skin
and a hell of a lot of privilege and unprocessed guilt.
good idea. i missed the fun at graduation though.
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