Please follow the link below. How is its discussion or definition of "creative nonfiction" applicable to Stephen Crane's piece, "An Experiment in Misery"?
http://billanddavescocktailhour.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-truth-in-nonfiction-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-bad-advice-cartoon-essay/
18 comments:
Creative nonfiction is applicable to Experiment in Misery because not everything Crane reported was complete fact but rather an experience. He was presented with a situation that was completely different from anything he ever experienced and he projected himself in a very vulnerable light. Everything he encountered was extreme and in some cases intimidating for him. As he went through a day as the "youth" he became aware of things he has never seen. He was honest about his experience and gave it to the reader as what happened to him.
As stated in the info graphic, it is unlikely that all the dialogue in Crane's "Experiment in Misery" is completely true. Crane was describing one day in such detail that some of it is probably fictionalized in one way or another. The dialogue may be off. The cost of the breakfast or the bed may be 5 cents or 8 cents or 2 cents. However, we must remember that those small details are rather insignificant to the story. They compliment, but they do not necessarily have as much weight as the scene by scene construction of the story. What is important is how the whole experience made him feel. The link mentions how many memoirs or other creative non fiction attempt to get at "the core of the scene". This is definitely noticeable in Crane's piece. After reading "Experiment in Misery" one gets the feeling of what it might be like to live on the streets and the type of people you would come in contact with. It captures the essence of need. It describes the barely livable conditions and how they are normal to the inhabitants in the story. How many faces there were in the sleeping quarters in important, but not the exact number. The author of a creative nonfiction piece will need to fill in the blanks some way and it should be creatively.
I think this cartoon about the definition of creative nonfiction and what makes good, honest creative nonfiction is applicable to Crane's "An Experiment in Misery" in that, while the entire dialogue isn't captured word for word,Crane's experience and the authenticity of what he went through is there. This story was published in the early 1890s and it complements other pieces that exposed class divide during the time. It would be safe to assume that, while maybe those conversations weren't 100 percent factual and maybe the seedy man is really three seedy men, that the experience is true and that it is an accurate representation of what it's like to live as a societal outcast.
Creative Nonfiction is applicable to "Experiment in Misery" because it is part journalism, part non fiction. Crane writes about facts that may or may not be true but still add to the story. It doesn't matter if all of the facts are completely accurate. It only matters that Crane was being honest, which he was. The story is descriptive and seems sincere. It is an undercover journalism piece, so he has to maintain a certain precedent of truth or people would not take it seriously.
Creative nonfiction is relevant to Cranes “An Experiment in Misery” because bits and pieces of Cranes story were written as a review of his experience. Not every piece of information Crane incorporates in his short story was completely factual information. However, because it was an event he experienced first hand as the “youth” it reflects what he actually went through. By exaggerating a bit or including some creative nonfiction is gets the reader interested in the story, but also provides them with accurate accounts of what he actually did experience, just in a creative way. He does this to not bore the reader but get them feeling sympathetic about what actually is happening in places that one has never experienced. It provides a sense of “walking in another mans shoes” through the eyes of someone who really isn’t like the “others”, but try’s to understand and live the life they are living.
Creative nonfiction is applicable to 'An Experiment in Misery because Crane's detailed piece is probably missing a few instances, fault only of human memory. As other people have mentioned, it is impossible that he remembers every detail of the experience but that does not make it less legitimate. Crane was honestly recounting the time he spent in the slums of society. Crane did not dream up the experience, he lived in and filled in the blanks where his memory faltered. His larger experience is the lesson of the piece of creative non-fiction, not the exact conversation's he had.
As defined in Dave Gessner’s cartoon essay, “creative nonfiction” can be described as a work that is true, but maybe not completely factual. Both Stephen Crane’s “An Experiment in Misery” and “When a Man Falls, a Crowd Gathers” are works that are based on real events and circumstances, but weren’t necessarily “real”—making them a true depiction of what it meant to be poor, but not a factual depiction. Crane took artistic license; while he may not have been describing events that actually happened, he was describing a type of event that commonly happened, and doing so in a way that provided an avenue for change. According to Gessner, those who write creative nonfiction should strive to be both artistic and truthful—they should describe real issues in a way that has an impact but doesn’t veer into fiction. As for what we define as “true,” I believe that is a matter of perception, and thus a matter for each individual author to decide.
The term "creative non-fiction" applies to Crane's piece ~Experiment in Misery. He writes as he remembers. So while the quotes may not be a perfect transcription, it is written the way that it happened. I think a valuable concept from the reading was "memory has its own story to tell." As a reader, I believe Crane's portrayal of events, and believe if he misplaced a fact here or there it is not damaging to the truth of the tale.
To me the interesting question is, if the boy in Crane's story thinks it now -based on his memories- does that mean he thought it then? For example, "to the youth these were not merely the shrieks of a vision-pierced man. They were the utterance of the meaning of the room and its occupants." Okay so what if the boy viewed his surroundings and at the time he was living in that moment he thought to himself that the sounds were intimidating and the smells were offensive... but now, as an adult and as a writer reviewing his memories through his more experienced filter, interprets them as "an utterance of the meaning of the room and occupants..." does that mean it's not journalism? If we didn't allow this type of story to fall under a category of journalism, we would miss out on the subtleties that separate fiction from narrative.
Dave Gessner's cartoons essay about creative non-fiction was fantastic. It captured all the complaints and gripes that most people have with creative non-fiction. I tihnk the most important part is to get all the important facts down and then build your more creative prose around that. With Stephen Crane's piece, "An Experiment in Misery," I know for a fact that there's no way he remembers the dialogue word-for-word or the details of the people or the night to the degree that he describes them.
I think creative non-fiction is all about the intention. If you are intent on telling a true story that you embellish with flowery metaphors, similes, and descriptions, I don't think it's all that bad. For example, Crane writes "the point of light yellowed and grew brighter, until the golden rays of the morning sun came in bravely and strong." Did the sun really come in bravely? I doubt it, but that doesn't bother me. I believe overall truth of Crane's story, which is what matters. Memory is not a tangible thing that we can grasp. It's always changing and we're always losing parts of it. In fact, to some degree, calling non-fiction is completely true seems like a farce as well.
I believe creative nonfiction is definitely applicable to "Experiment in Misery". We don't know if everything Crane wrote was completely accurate. We should assume it is an honest piece of creative nonfiction though. Probably the least truthful part of the story is the dialogue, I'm sure it wasn't completely accurate. The cartoon showed me that this is ok. A good creative nonfiction writer fills in the blanks he or she can't remember, but makes sure the whole is as accurate as possible. Crane did just this. The little things might not be totally accurate, but Crane painted a polarizing and truthful account of people living on the streets.
Stephen Crane's piece "An Experiment in Misery" is certainly creative in its use of language, scene description, point of view, and a particular kind of dialog. However, it is nonfiction because he is writing from reality. He is at once telling a story about truth and expressing how it makes him feel. As the article discussed, he probably could not remember every single detail of the events that happened, but the genre of creative nonfiction should allow for some liberties in order to make a point.
I think one of the most telling lines in "An Experiment in Misery" comes when Crane, as the 'young man,' "did not sleep, but lay carving biographies for these men from his meager experience" (67). That alone shows the pull of fiction, the desire to embellish real life. The men Crane spends the night among are real, we hope, but his perceptions--and later, his portrayal of these men on paper--are shaped by his experiences. He 'carves' a biography out of what he's seen previously in his life simply because he can't imagine something he has no knowledge of. He sleeps among men he is scared of and uses fiction to escape that reality, and then undoubtedly masks his later written account with little fictions, too.
How do we know that Stephen Crane recalled every word, every look, every detail of the shelter? We don't. How do we know that he really met 'the assassin' and had coffee with him? Isn't it awfully convenient that Crane comes to a realization about "social position, comfort, [and] the pleasures of living" in the end, just from sitting on a bench with the assassin? Maybe not every single detail is correct. Maybe Crane simply manufactured an epiphany because it was what his editor wanted readers to take away from the piece. What I took away from Dave Gessner's essay is that every single detail doesn't have to be right, so long as what the story was meant to convey is still there. This story was meant to convey the depths of misery, of poverty, that Crane had never before experienced, and I think it does that very well. Are all the details correct? Probably not. But does it matter, in the end? When the piece has endured for this long, teaching us the lesson it does, I don't think it does.
Creative nonfiction is part of Stephen Crane's Experiment in Misery because it is safe to assume that not everything in the story is exactly true because there are some minor details that are probably over exaggerated such as the prices for food or at a hostel. Also Crane was probably writing all of this through his memory from his experience, so although most of the events area accurate we can not expect that the writer has a photographic memory of everything going on around him. However after reading the story I was able to visualize what it might be like to live on the streets and the people you would come to encounter.
I think that the cartoon about creative nonfiction spoke to the core of Crane's piece. Crane uses extreme detail in an "Experiment in Misery." In a time when video cameras and recorders weren't around to capture moments, it's not hard to assume that the detail Crane goes into is a creative use of his memory. The cartoon gets at this. Writers are "excavating the past" and as long as they try their best to be both accurate and artistic while being honest about it then they have succeeded in crafting a piece of creative nonfiction that gives the genre a good name. Crane isn't trying to break news headlines with his detailed account of his interaction with the assassin. He's using his creativity to capture a moment and give his audience a feeling that exact recall can't. Creative nonfiction gives emotion. It uses honesty. That's what Crane does and that's what the cartoon is getting at.
Stephen Crane's piece "Experiment in Misery" fits perfectly into the cartoon descriptions and depictions of Literary Journalism produced by Bill and Dave with their cocktails. Crane uses creative literary devices like metaphor and hyperbole to capture the essence of down and out 19th century street life. Crane's intentions were not to report hard facts but rather to give a visceral and experiential account from a submersed perspective. This kind of journalism seems more likely to provoke empathy in an audience than, for example more literal attempted objective journalism.
The cartoon applies to "Experiment in Misery" because while Crane's piece is nonfiction, creative nonfiction allows for his characters or conversations to be slightly altered to fit/improve his story. However, the facts in Crane's stories must be the truth, which they are. The setting (the 1890s) and the facts related to this setting remain truthful.
If his characters represent more than one person, each of those people must be accurately represented. Moreover, his conversations must have some basis in the original conversations; Crane cannot fabricate an entirely new conversation. There should be some nonfiction basis in his creative words.
Stephen Crane's "Experiment in Misery" is definitely considered creative nonfiction, but the cartoon does bring up some valid points about the origins and intentions of creative nonfiction. The cartoon states that creative nonfiction is a sort of hybrid between journalism and fiction, and that every detail of a creative nonfiction piece couldn't possibly be accurate because of its detail.
Just a quick note -- vignettes are not exclusive to "procedurals," though procedurals use vignettes to portray stages of a process or procedure. . . Jimmy Breslin's DEATH IN EMERGENCY ROOM ONE comes to mind as another example -- a medical procedural. Procedurals are very popular on TV.
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