3 ms·

This is the end of TFA: > Emerson sees Sparks chiefly as an impostor, but she comes across as a true believer, both in evil and in her capacity to combat it by

by bambax 4y ago

This is the end of TFA: > Emerson sees Sparks chiefly as an impostor, but she comes across as a true believer, both in evil and in her capacity to combat it by scaring teen-agers straight. Imposter vs. True Believer: evil schemer or naive righteous soccer mom... Mmm... Or maybe she was... an artist?! I find it quite shocking and incredible that still today, she's casually dismissed as a fabricator. Every fiction is a fabrication. That's what artists do; that's the original meaning of the word "poetry": to make [0]. The fact that publishers decided to market that fiction as a true testimonial is irrelevant. (It is mentioned in the article that the "impostor"/anonymous part was the idea of the publisher, and that Sparks only reluctantly agreed.) It's possible her ultimate motive was to save teenagers from the perils of drugs, but in the process she created works that obviously resonated with a lot of people. How hard would it be to respect her a little. [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of-the-word-poet https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of...

fumeux_fume 4y ago
She found success in her time, but in retrospect and in a wider context her work is viewed negatively for obvious reasons. That doesn't seem shocking or incredible.
LiquidSky 4y ago
- bambax 4y ago
atoav 4y ago
I agree with your characterization of fiction and poetry. There have been many writers who wrote fictional diaries (e.g. Max Frisch' Stiller) and other (real) diaries that entered the realm of literature (e.g. the diaries of Anne Frank). I'd say where most people would draw the line is when someone tries to sell something as autobiographic that has been clearly made up for moralist reasons, yet still lie about it's authenticity. This has nothing to do with the book, and everything to do with the person who pretends to have lived a live that they have not. In the end the artwork can sometimes be more wise, intelligent and impactful than the artist who made it. Yet the context the artist creates will always colour the reception.
- akiselev 4y ago
  I think the issue arises when a public persona is attached to the work, taking it from the realm of art to performance. I doubt most people would react the same to a fictional autobiography from a reclusive author a la J.D. Salinger like they did to authors like James Frey who went on Oprah to promote A Million Little Pieces. From the first few paragraphs of the TFA it sounds like Beatrice Sparks likewise attached the fiction to herself publicly through her lectures and self help work or whatever. It's like designing a fake medical license in Photoshop and printing it out: it doesn't really matter to anyone unless you actually try to use it to treat people in the real world.
watwut 4y ago
> Every fiction is a fabrication. There is obvious difference between selling fabrications as fiction and selling fabrications as your real world experiences. The decision to mark it as such is not irrelevant and is not something you can blame purely on publishers.
zasdffaa 4y ago
> Mmm... Or maybe she was... an artist?! Or liar. Works for me.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bertil 4y ago
Art would be doing something like the Blair Witch Project, that is trying to maintain the credibility of the fiction but still has a producer listed on IMDb. This is a bad lie.
- bambax 4y ago
  I put this in a response to a comment that became dead, so I'm reproducing it here: Fargo was presented as a "true story", which it wasn't. Yet nobody ever dismissed the Coen brothers as "fabricators". My theory is that in art, as in most things, you're either "in" or "out". If you're in, you can do anything with impunity. If you're out, your every actions will be scrutinized and you will be forgiven nothing. This whole article smells of virtue signalling, and I have an issue with that.
mrcheesebreeze 4y ago
because there are double standards for certain groups. Nowadays if you are religious or conservatives you are a bigot nazi and should be demonized always. This isn't one sided though, conservatives demonize liberals as terrorist commies, its just that the media companies push the first narrative more often. When we realize its all hogwash, and that news companies are owned by a few companies to promote culture wars. At the end of the day its a side effect of media radicalization to allow the corrupt to further rob the middle and low classes of what little they have left. a chart from 2019 I believe, could be more or less recent: https://i0.wp.com/swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cfr-media-network-hdv-spr.png?ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cfr-m...

by bambax 4y ago

fumeux_fume 4y ago

She found success in her time, but in retrospect and in a wider context her work is viewed negatively for obvious reasons. That doesn't seem shocking or incredible.

LiquidSky 4y ago

bambax 4y ago

atoav 4y ago

I agree with your characterization of fiction and poetry. There have been many writers who wrote fictional diaries (e.g. Max Frisch' Stiller) and other (real) diaries that entered the realm of literature (e.g. the diaries of Anne Frank). I'd say where most people would draw the line is when someone tries to sell something as autobiographic that has been clearly made up for moralist reasons, yet still lie about it's authenticity. This has nothing to do with the book, and everything to do with the person who pretends to have lived a live that they have not. In the end the artwork can sometimes be more wise, intelligent and impactful than the artist who made it. Yet the context the artist creates will always colour the reception.

akiselev 4y ago
I think the issue arises when a public persona is attached to the work, taking it from the realm of art to performance. I doubt most people would react the same to a fictional autobiography from a reclusive author a la J.D. Salinger like they did to authors like James Frey who went on Oprah to promote A Million Little Pieces. From the first few paragraphs of the TFA it sounds like Beatrice Sparks likewise attached the fiction to herself publicly through her lectures and self help work or whatever. It's like designing a fake medical license in Photoshop and printing it out: it doesn't really matter to anyone unless you actually try to use it to treat people in the real world.

watwut 4y ago

> Every fiction is a fabrication. There is obvious difference between selling fabrications as fiction and selling fabrications as your real world experiences. The decision to mark it as such is not irrelevant and is not something you can blame purely on publishers.

zasdffaa 4y ago

> Mmm... Or maybe she was... an artist?! Or liar. Works for me.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bertil 4y ago

Art would be doing something like the Blair Witch Project, that is trying to maintain the credibility of the fiction but still has a producer listed on IMDb. This is a bad lie.

bambax 4y ago
I put this in a response to a comment that became dead, so I'm reproducing it here: Fargo was presented as a "true story", which it wasn't. Yet nobody ever dismissed the Coen brothers as "fabricators". My theory is that in art, as in most things, you're either "in" or "out". If you're in, you can do anything with impunity. If you're out, your every actions will be scrutinized and you will be forgiven nothing. This whole article smells of virtue signalling, and I have an issue with that.

mrcheesebreeze 4y ago

because there are double standards for certain groups. Nowadays if you are religious or conservatives you are a bigot nazi and should be demonized always. This isn't one sided though, conservatives demonize liberals as terrorist commies, its just that the media companies push the first narrative more often. When we realize its all hogwash, and that news companies are owned by a few companies to promote culture wars. At the end of the day its a side effect of media radicalization to allow the corrupt to further rob the middle and low classes of what little they have left. a chart from 2019 I believe, could be more or less recent: https://i0.wp.com/swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cfr-media-network-hdv-spr.png?ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cfr-m...