Thursday, February 23, 2017

Prompt 7

Controversies surrounding books are nothing new. We have seen books challenged and banned because of what some have deemed as inappropriate such as J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Most challenged and banned books are typically banned from a public arena such as public schools because of sexual content or inappropriate language.  Another controversy surrounding books is those associated with fake memoirs.

A memoir is supposed to be a true account of someone's life or a period of time during the author's life. A fake memoir is a fabrication of part or all of the events and life written in an autobiography, memoir or diary. I am amazed at the stories that people can come up with to have fame and fortune. I wonder why the authors do not just write their story as fiction instead of proclaiming that the events really happened. These stories could be just as riveting as fiction books. I think that some stories could be considered as great historical fiction stories, especially those surrounding the Holocaust where the author adds nonfactual items to the story. Take for instance, Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love that Survived by Herman Rosenblat. He wrote about his time at the Buchenwald concentration camp. He then embellished the story about how he met his wife and made it out to be factual. His story should have been published as historical fiction instead of a non-fiction memoir (along with changing the title of the story and removing the word true). If a story is not real and the writer wants to tell a good story, then it should be published as fiction. The public would know that the author was being authentic and truthful.

It is very disappointing that people could falsify information without any fact checking by publishers. Viking Publishers Vice-President Carol Coleburn states, "We rely on our authors to tell the truth and fact-check" (Fake memoirs, 2017). This statement was made concerning the book Odd man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit by Matt McCarthy. This book was an account of McCarthy's time playing in minor league surrounded by teammates who took steroids. Then portions of the book were found to have been fabricated. Publishers may need to start patrolling the truthfulness of non-fiction works to keep from embarrassment. While it would be wonderful to fully believe authors, I think stories should be investigated before books are published.

Fake memoirs take credibility away from people who actually write true accounts. As a reader, I will begin to question if what I am reading is true or fabricated. Librarians may be more skeptical when purchasing memoirs or autobiographies for the collection.

As librarians, I am afraid we might be held accountable by our patrons for fake memoirs that are on the shelves. Even though we did not write the story or publish it, we may still be connected to the book and cause a certain level of wariness from our patrons and place a level of distrust based on a book that we have on our shelves that is ultimately fake. Non-fiction is meant to tell the truth; that is, what readers not only want, but expect. Standards of truth and integrity should be expected in all non-fiction material.

Works Cited
Fake memoirs. (2017, February 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_memoirs&oldid=765743013

4 comments:

  1. I completely agree. If you feel the need to fabricate details, your work should be published as fiction rather than nonfiction. That would be honest. I think the problem lies in book sells. Things tend to sell easier if they are tagged as a true story or based on a true story.

    I also agree with your thoughts on publishing companies and libraries. I think that librarians have a big responsibility placed on their shoulders. There is no way to fact check every single book that we order. The best thing to do is to look for cited sources and primary evidence when ordering new memoirs and biographies. It definitely makes me wary to purchase many, which is a shame because of how popular they are. It will be hard finding that balance.

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  2. I would be afraid that, as librarians, we would be held accountable for the titles in the collection, especially with fake memoirs. We strive for the reliability of information, and I think that includes memoirs because they are based in truth. Fake memoirs are a fabrication of truth, and these titles would undermine our goal to be reliable source for information. I would feel more could simply publish fake memoirs as fiction instead so that we would be able to purchase these titles for the fiction section. Fake memoirs have tendency of being well-written, too, and they could be enjoyed by patrons, especially if they had been published as fiction.

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  3. I agree with your statement that fake memoirs take away the validity of those who write real ones. That really is the main problem here. I sort of touched on this in my post, but if we can't trust one, how can we trust all the rest? I also think librarians have a good advantage because we are good at discerning whether or not a source is credible, therefore we can help the patrons in that exploration. But I agree, it is scary to think that patrons may judge us based on the credibility of the content we disseminate.

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  4. Wonderful prompt response! I like where you took it! Full points.

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