In my view, there are few conversations about art more useless than “Is this piece of writing literature?” (perhaps just next to “What is art?”) The debate about whether something is literature–a word that has no set definition, even within the world of academics–is subjective and steeped in pretentiousness. Even worse, it reminds me of the conversations we’ve already had on the differences between fiction and nonfiction novels as genres, something that gets me very frustrated.

So, when presented with the question of whether Bechdel’s Fun Home can be considered literature, I am forced to offer my own subjective opinion: yes, it is literature. And that is because literature is a meaningless term that can be applied to any sort of writing, no matter the quality.

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At the very end of John D’Agata’s About a Mountain, he reveals a small fact about the story: that some of the things within the story that he passed off as being completely accurate were purposefully altered, whether for dramatic effect, or to protect the identities of those he speaks about. In other words, the non-fiction story is not entirely non-fictional.

Who cares?

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Lauren Slater’s Lying occupies an interesting space within the world of creative nonfiction. Why, you ask? No, it’s not because it’s about a disease. No, it’s not even because Slater is an unreliable narrator.

In short, Lying is so special because, contrary to popular belief, it is quite possibly the single most honest creative non-fiction work in existence.

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I was almost always ready to shoot. I kept the camera within reaching distance, sometimes balanced on my shoulder… even between major portraits, when I was on the road, I was totally open to filming whatever might happen…

-Ross McElwee, 1988

I have a request for you, dear reader: stop thinking. Stop having thoughts about anything. Temporarily erase everything from your mind. Stop thinking about these words, this blog post, breathing–stop. If you’re asking yourself, “Did I do it?”, then no, you didn’t.

Not as easy as it sounds, right?

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In the modern era, society has found itself dissatisfied with the plain text that comes from reading a book. For just a few dollars, one can enjoy nearly any story of their choice as an audiobook, or even as a movie. In both cases, there is one similarity: voice. The human voice has the ability to carry so many various inflections and variations that, in many ways, it is the sum of all human communication.

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