Separating Fact from Fiction or You Can't Handle the Truth

Contrary to the cop out title(s) chosen for this blog entry I will be attempting to marry fact and fiction. That is to say, this is a cheap and easy way for me to write about two TC sessions at once - what it's like to write fiction, compliments of Andrew Daley and what it's like to fact-check with a nod to Patricia Treble.

A sort-of hero of mine is Thomas King, an English professor at the University of Guelph. I say sort of not because I am in doubt about Mr. King's beautiful mind because there is no doubt in my mind that his is in fact beautiful. The 'sort of' stems from my understanding of what a hero is. I don't think I know anyone personally or through their life's work enough to say, "Hey you, you are the best-friggin-thing-this-crazy-world-has-ever-seen-and-not-only-do-I-have-a-probably-unhealthy-fascination-with-you-but-I-want-to-emulate-you-in-every-way-that-I-can-Hoo-rah." No, I have no full-on heroes, only sort-ofs and that I think is all we should ask of anyone or ourselves. ANYWAY...Thomas King is cool and he said this, "The truth about stories is that that's all we are."

I don't know if I can think of something better to say about anything or everything for that matter. As much as I believe this it presents a minor cosmological problem for how I make a living in the aforementioned crazy world. A protégé by day and a fact-checker by night (although it is often the reverse.) If we are only stories then there can be no true, objective, facts. Foiled yet again! Or not, I do believe in truth regimes in the Foucauldian sense, therefore I do believe there are things to be 'verified' within our current power-knowledge. Have I lost you yet?

Perhaps this was the point. Time to do some research; not me, you. Lesson one in fact-checking - never presume, never assume (Patricia Treble's words not mine.) Who is Thomas King? Does he still work at U of G, did he ever? Did he write what I said he did? Is it fair to say this world is crazy? Am I really a fact-checker by day or night or whatever? This is the life of a fact-checker, you want to know the truth, to hell with Wikipedia, get offline and get on the phone. (Michel Foucault has since departed this crazy world so it might be hard to reach him by teley. In this case I will allow you to use the Internet but maybe you should call someone who has spent their life studying him. Someone who perhaps would call him their 'hero'. They are most likely a credible source, an 'expert' if you will.)

But what does it even matter for if I'm writing fiction I have the license to write whatever bullshit I want. This is both true and not true, fiction is an entirely different beast than non-fiction but it can still be checked. Just ask Conan. And as for what Andrew Daley has to say about writing fiction, for the love of God, finish what you start. A lot of people start writing a lot of stories, very few people finish writing any stories. The end.