As you may or may not know, Jodi MacArthur is filled to the brim with awesomeness. She's a horror and crime writer who pens a pirate series at Pulp Metal Magazine has a phenomenal story up at 10Flash Quarterly, The Girl Who Was Chased by an Abominable Snowman with a Machete.
With a title like that, you know you're in for a treat.
She follows through with a raucous, imaginative, and hilarious adventure. Santa, Big Foot and, of course, the machete-wielding Snowman all make appearances in this blazing tale told from the perspective of a girl who requests her mom to "not freak out" about her disappearance.
MacArthur is also Chin Wagging over at Richard Godwin's place and sheesh, does she provide thoughtful, engaging answers.
At one point, she quotes King as saying that fiction has power as the truth withing the lie. That really rings true for me. To me, non-fiction and journalism offers a lot of facts, but seems to often skirt around truth. I think there is a difference there--truth is the core, but facts are mere information floating in space. But good fiction tracks down truth, sinks its claws into its back, and holds on for dear life! Good fiction catapaults into the void of human identity...
or you know some other smart-sounding philosophical stuff.
Anywho, what do you think? Is there any truth in fiction?
Or are we just deceiving ourselves? Are we just trying to rationalize why we keep playing pretend well into adulthood? Shouldn't we have better, more adultish things to do?
Jodi is tops and so is the interview.
ReplyDeleteI know one thing once Jodi lures you into her mind you can wander around in there in a blissful daze for weeks and weeks. Hey, go read her interview, you'll see what I mean. Ants in catsuits crawling on Amazon women brandishing bottles of furrymoans and a truly chilling crayon scribble on a closet wall and a lotta really smart stuff and . . . and . . . oh hell, run don't walk over to Richard's place and read it for yourself. You'll never regret it-- unless you get ant bit or furry moaned.
ReplyDeleteDelightful, AJ!
ReplyDeleteJodi is a great writer. I'll head over and read the interview, now.
ReplyDeleteOn the truth in fiction question. I think so. Things had to have happened before they someone decided to write a story about them. There had to be a serial killer before the first serial killer novel ever came out. There had to be some kind of great robbery before the perfect heist novel came out. They're my thoughts anyway.
And no, we shouldn't have to be doing more adultish things. There's nothing wrong with trying to hold onto the last bits of childishness (is that a word?) for as long as we possibly can. Life's too short for seriousness all the time!! :-)
Great post, Chris.
to my mind, at the heart of it all we're all story tellers. it's at the root of our communication, entertainment and culture. some of us choose to write it down, others do great speeches or jokes or tell you their news with great embelishment. should we be doing something better? what the hell else is there?
ReplyDeleteI'm full of something, Chris, and I'm not so sure its awesomeness. But I think its Awesome of *you* to PR the interview (with the awesome Richard Godwin btw) and Abominable snowman story (that 10Flash took a chance with me on), and you bring up some fantastic thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe Stephen Quote I will agree with you is amazing. One can go around and aruond in circles with it.
I like your analogy about the facts floating around and the truth is always at the core, and how the fiction can weave its way through the facts to bite into the core. My word, this suonds so sci fi. I remember talking to a lady with Ph.D. in psychology about intuition once. She explains it very similar. She would take a piece of paper and make long dashes across it and say, "These are the facts." Then she would take the pen and make waves between the dashes "this is how the facts are woven together to provide the truth, its how we calculate it up...in other words...intuition." Anyways, this is always good stuff to talk about and I'm excited that you are another soul so fascinated with the heart of fiction and the ways we can spin it. Thanks again for the review and the PR. ;-)
J
ps.
ReplyDeleteAj ~ Rawr
As most of us know by now, Ms. Jodi MacArthur is a fantastic writer. Just read a couple of her stories and you'll see. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteCool stuff, everyone! Nigel--I agree storytelling is at the core. Guess my playing Devil's Advocate (with the isn't there something better we should be doing?) wasn't all that convincing!
ReplyDeleteAnd Jodi--I love that analogy of intuition. Fits like a glove.
So I'm guessing Jodi's not taking any calls from the president!
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ReplyDeleteYeah, Jodi shows such insight in that interview, and that story really shows off her writing chops. Awesome stuff.
ReplyDelete-Sean
Jodi is the biz!
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