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Fact, Fiction, Syllabus

Submitted by kgould on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 1:07pm

Work	Author	Why
Spook	Mary Roach	A fantastic piece of science writing that takes a neutral look at ghosts, the afterlife, and what comes after death; presents evidence and lets the reader decide (print)
In Cold Blood	Truman Capote	“Non-fiction” but widely contested to be less-than-accurate; journalism and its slant; objectivity?... (print)
F is for Fake	Orson Welles	According to UC Berkeley’s Mockumentary page, a film-essay, done in a pseudo-documentary style is a meditation on illusionism, the role of the artist being that of a charlatan-magician—also, Welles’ own interest in editing to fake cinematic space (film)
The Hot Zone	Richard Preston	Ebola, monkeys, and a storage facility in Virginia; nonfiction, dramatization, reads like a thriller novel (print)
Faking It: mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality	Hight and Roscoe	(Also from UC Berkeley’s page), offers the first major study of mock-documentary. The authors examine the relatively new form along with the association between factual codes and conventions, and the discourses which underpin the genre (print)
The Alcoholic	Ames and Haspiel	Found an excerpt in The Best American Comics 2010, graphic memoir of an alcoholic failing writer dealing with love, life, and tragedy (print)