50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Guests

In Defense of Fiction

by Alafair Burke, June 22, 2011 10:32 AM
I went to a Book Blogger Conference at this year's Book Expo of America convention. One vocal blogger (is there any other kind?) let me know that she only reads memoirs and "other nonfiction" because she is interested in "issues" and "needed books to matter."

I let her assumption about the accuracy of memoirs slide. As a law professor who writes not merely fiction, but genre novels to boot, I was far more concerned about making the case that fiction — even low-brow, beach-book crime fiction — can "matter."

For my day job, I write law review articles — hundreds of pages with still more hundreds of footnotes. Law review articles are supposed to be meticulously researched and relentlessly thorough probes of important and novel legal issues. They are intended to "matter."

It is hard to know whether an individual piece of legal scholarship has impact, but one measure is its frequency of citation by courts or other legal scholars. To give you an idea of the numbers, Cass Sunstein, the most cited legal scholar in the country and now Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, was cited in eight judicial opinions and 927 law review articles in the past year. Yours truly has been cited in three judicial opinions and 208 law review articles — in her entire career.

In contrast, a modest print run for a novel with a major publisher is 35,000 copies. In short, more people read Michael Connelly than Cass Sunstein.

Of course, it's not just the size of the audience that "matters." I happen to be interested in the criminal justice system, which is undeniably shaped by public perception. And those perceptions are shaped in America not by law review articles or other works of nonfiction, but by popular culture.

In a world where a major cable news network allows Nancy Grace to preach fear six nights a week to an audience of more than 1.3 million, entertainment may be a sane commentator's best hope of shaping public views about our criminal justice system.

I have written law review articles about the unseen, unreviewable effects of prosecutorial discretion, but I have certainly had more impact on the popular conception of a prosecutor's role by showing Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid employ — both for good and bad ends — nearly limitless charging and plea bargaining authority.

I have written about the problem of wrongful convictions, but my writing has surely shaped public opinion more through fictional (but realistic) depictions of high-pressure interrogations, flawed eyewitness identification procedures, overreliance on questionable informant testimony, and police investigations shaped by tunnel vision.

As a writer, I believe in showing, not telling. My job is to spin a good yarn, not lecture. But I nevertheless believe that, as a lawyer who cares about equity and accuracy in the criminal justice system, I can defend the genre in which I write. Books can entertain and yet nevertheless educate.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Have you learned something surprising from a so-called "beach book"? When has an entertaining book also "mattered"?




Books mentioned in this post

Long Gone

Alafair Burke
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Fiction of 2020 by Powell's Books
  2. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  3. Midyear Roundup 2021: The Best Books of the Year (So Far) by Powell's Staff
  4. The 11 Best Places to Read by Will Schwalbe
  5. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: Pacific Northwest Edition by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

6 Responses to "In Defense of Fiction"

johen June 29, 2011 at 09:30 PM
Nonfiction shows you things the way they are; fiction shows you things are not necessarily the ways they are.

Sandy Beach June 29, 2011 at 07:19 AM
I read quite a bit of literary fiction as well as non-fiction, but in a recent conversation with some other readers about what book made a real difference in our lives, I had to admit that the book that "mattered" in the most concrete way was the National Lampoon Yearbook parody. When the yearbook parody was published in the 1970s, I read it, enjoyed its clever weaving of characters like the class roundheels, the "Mad Crapper," the tough coach, etc, but didn't really give it a second thought. Fast forward a decade, and I'm the mother of an autistic child with, shall we say, some of the classic fixations. At the end of my rope one day, exhausted and frustrated and cleaning up yet another smelly mess, the yearbook popped into my head. Somehow, just remembering that people thought the Mad Crapper was funny gave me another way of looking at our situation, and I'm not exaggerating in saying that being able to make a connection, however tenuous, between our circumstances and something funny saved my life or at least my sanity. Sure, I wish I could say that War and Peace was the book that mattered, but the reality is that touchstones may be anywhere. The more widely one reads, the more one will find books that "matter."

K June 29, 2011 at 04:48 AM
When I read, I have a tendency toward "fluff" novels -- particularly YA fantasy and romance,and have been subtly criticized for it by those who feel as your blogger does. But those kid's books have reinforced so many of the life lessons that we all need to learn: friendship and loyalty first, believe in yourself, authority figures are fallible, even that dragons are real. And as interested as I am in Native cultures, a well-researched romance that includes rituals and language is a far more interesting read to me than a text book. I ocassionally pick up a work of non-fiction, and enjoy it when I do, but in any reading choice, it's the story, the information and ideas imparted, that really MATTERS.

Patty June 29, 2011 at 04:34 AM
I view fiction...all forms of it...as a necessary getaway. Even when it is a nail biting mystery...it is still fun and relaxing. I am learning to love fantasy and paranormal and dystopian novels as well as just great literary fiction. I hate when anyone deplores another person 's reading choices. I find that finding out what someone reads is totally fascinating and provides a unique glimpse into their personality.

Kurt June 26, 2011 at 10:23 PM
"As a writer, I believe in showing, not telling." A wonderfully ironic statement since writing is itself a code in which oddly shaped marks are arranged in groups signifying things, actions or ideas. The mental effort of reading-deciphering the code-engages the problem solving faculties of the mind in a search for meaning. A newspaper or a blog or an owner's manual will provide information-meaning-which may be useful in the moment it is acquired but longer works ought to provide more than transitory value. I don't make any effort to keep up with the newest works of either fiction or non-fiction but rather read things which appeal to me without regard to their date. Lots of non-fiction holds up pretty well over time but the timeless works are in fiction, and lots of those were "genre" pieces when written. The best defense of fiction vs. non-fiction I know about (if fiction really needs defending) is from Plato"s "Theaetetus": "...for we no longer seek for knowledge, in perception at all, but in that other process, however called, in which the mind is alone and engaged with being."

Pete Sandberg June 24, 2011 at 04:52 PM
I joke about primarily reading what I call "airport fiction" a lot these days. That said, I've learned more about religion (and how religion c/should have evolved) reading Christopher Moore's "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" than I ever did in sunday school. I learned more about the impacts on guys from Vietnam and the aftermath by reading Dave Robichaux than any other source. The middle east reading Tom Robbins - well, life reading Tom Robbins I guess. Ecology and culture from Barbara Kingsolver. Native culture with Kent Nerburn's Neither "Wolf Nor Dog" (which everyone should read IMO). I think we all learn SOMEthing everytime we read; sometimes we don't know it for a while!

Result(s) 6

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2022 POWELLS.COM Terms