Non fiction's popularity
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Hei mahi | Exercise 2
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Let's now explore the what and why of non-fiction.
What draws you to non-fiction?
Consider some ideas below and then post your own thoughts in the forum:
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The nonfiction act ... satisfies our hunger for the real and our need to make sense, make order, out of chaos.- Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize winner |
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- Sheila Bender, in Creative Writing Demystified |
Bender goes on to say -
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As contemporary people struggle with changing climate, technology, and theology, as well as finding a place in a global world, the various forms of creative nonfiction from reflections to memoir to personal submersion in diverse cultures and conflicts become more and more popular among writers and readers. As our entertainment industry becomes more and more polished, so grows our hunger for non airbrushed versions of things. We want to know what it is like for others whom Hollywood has not recast and remodeled. We are willing to accept that any particular nonfiction writer has a specific, personalized version of events. That knowledge endears us to the writer, who yearns to understand experience, and in that yearning creates accounts that help us understand our own experiences. For decades, novels and heroes in epic poems helped us through human foibles and disasters. Today, the work that helps us might more frequently be nonfiction accounts by ethnic minorities suffering the obstacles of assimilation or the work of those who have overcome difficult illnesses, survived war, or won or not won against other challenging odds. - Sheila Bender |
She acknowledges the breadth of non-fiction subjects, including sports, nature, history, true crime and travel.
What is your response to the reasons given by Ron Power and Sheila Bender for non-fiction's popularity?Do you read in any of the areas mentioned above? If so, what draws you to that subject?
Post your thoughts in the forum.