There was a fabulism scandal in my university journalism department, unmasked only once the fabulist lied about a foreign culture, and invented a life-or-death lie. I remembered her name for years, because I perceived her lies as holding back my(admittedly tritely mainstream) efforts to learn the craft on campus.Now, instead of hating her, my thoughts about writing for college are about what may have happened if I'd written as myself without worrying about my "range", which I'm still not sure I even demonstrated anyway, though some of that stuff still seems cute to me, though not powerful or creative.
I don't sleep easily anymore so it was easy to find the movie about this, "Shattered Glass", on cable.(an entertaining watch featuring Rosario Dawson and Steve Zahn which is a hoot if you want either newsroom cameraderie or 1990s nostalgia, since it has both.) I tracked down the book, since I tend to follow even transitory enthusiasms, especially those I can fulfill for under $10. As I read, although Glass is not bad at sketching in the kinds of social-commentary details that certain kinds of reviewers describe as "telling", I did find myself paging through thinking "Shouldn't he be better at this?"
Maybe making stuff up wasn't fun once he had permission for it.Not sure I buy Glass' "Ordinary People", nobody-fails-in-the-Illinois-suburbs defense, since I have had fight much harder for less.
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