Vignettes
Being one of those kids who practically lived in the school library growing up, I quickly reached the conclusion that I would only read fiction as long as I lived and avoid the non-fiction section like it was the plague. I'll admit, I never really saw the appeal of non-fiction until I was a freshman. Fiction seemed the clearly superior form of text -- action, adventure, victory, loss, the whole shebang. But most importantly, fiction had a sense of a story, a sense of a narrative. Non-fiction seemed like something that you would only use in your report on white-bellied field mice, not something that you would read for any reason other than the pretty pictures.
Race is certainly one of many books that makes me glad I eventually realized the obvious -- non-fiction can still have a narrative. Books I've read both inside and outside of school, such as Class by Paul Fussell, or essays such as "Big Red Son" by David Foster Wallace helped me understand that narrative and formal argument can work hand-in-hand beautifully. Non-fiction gives a space for the author to speak almost directly to the audience with devices such as facts and statistics, whereas fiction follows the "show-don't-tell" philosophy much more strictly. Just think about how... differently... The Great Gatsby would have been received if Fitzgerald would regularly throw in a figure or two from the United States Federal Reserve illustrating the wealth disparity between the white-collar and blue-collar workforces every page or so.
Aronson uses a very effective narrative technique where he often begins new sections with heavily analogous vignettes (whether fictitious or real) or quotes to illustrate the point he's trying get across in the following section. Chapter 1 begins with a quote from the book Sold by Patricia McCormick where she describes a 13-year-old girl being sold into sex slavery. It forces us to consider not only the fact that something as disgusting as this still happens every day, but that this is modern slavery. Aronson then uses the next chapter, titled "Slaves, Hebrews, God", to demonstrate the way that we think about who is the "master" and who is the "slave" has changed constantly and rapidly throughout ancient history, whether that be the Ancient Egyptians being the master and the Hebrews the slave or the Jews the master and the Gentiles the slave. Later in the book, on page 115, as he starts to discuss the way that "scientific reason" came to be used as justification for racism developed, Aronson begins the chapter with the true story of Jane Elliot.
Elliot was an elementary teacher who taught her young students about racism by separating the class into children who had blue eyes and those who had brown eyes, telling them that the children with brown eyes were naturally superior because of their higher melanin content, calling it an unchangeable scientific fact. In this case, both Aronson and Elliot are making the point that an "unchangeable scientific fact" may be objective, but the way that we choose to apply the fact is what ultimately matters when it comes to the development of racism on an "objective" basis.
Combining the narrative of fiction and the formal argument of non-fiction is something that can be used to greatly enhance both your argument and the audience's experience of reading the text. It can be the element of your writing that can separate reading the dictionary from reading Harry Potter -- it benefits you both aesthetically and rhetorically. Having a realistic application or example is a highly effective way to make your argument more memorable and grounded rather than dry and abstract. Because in the end, fiction and non-fiction are only divided by the Dewey Decimal System.
Race is certainly one of many books that makes me glad I eventually realized the obvious -- non-fiction can still have a narrative. Books I've read both inside and outside of school, such as Class by Paul Fussell, or essays such as "Big Red Son" by David Foster Wallace helped me understand that narrative and formal argument can work hand-in-hand beautifully. Non-fiction gives a space for the author to speak almost directly to the audience with devices such as facts and statistics, whereas fiction follows the "show-don't-tell" philosophy much more strictly. Just think about how... differently... The Great Gatsby would have been received if Fitzgerald would regularly throw in a figure or two from the United States Federal Reserve illustrating the wealth disparity between the white-collar and blue-collar workforces every page or so.
Aronson uses a very effective narrative technique where he often begins new sections with heavily analogous vignettes (whether fictitious or real) or quotes to illustrate the point he's trying get across in the following section. Chapter 1 begins with a quote from the book Sold by Patricia McCormick where she describes a 13-year-old girl being sold into sex slavery. It forces us to consider not only the fact that something as disgusting as this still happens every day, but that this is modern slavery. Aronson then uses the next chapter, titled "Slaves, Hebrews, God", to demonstrate the way that we think about who is the "master" and who is the "slave" has changed constantly and rapidly throughout ancient history, whether that be the Ancient Egyptians being the master and the Hebrews the slave or the Jews the master and the Gentiles the slave. Later in the book, on page 115, as he starts to discuss the way that "scientific reason" came to be used as justification for racism developed, Aronson begins the chapter with the true story of Jane Elliot.
Elliot was an elementary teacher who taught her young students about racism by separating the class into children who had blue eyes and those who had brown eyes, telling them that the children with brown eyes were naturally superior because of their higher melanin content, calling it an unchangeable scientific fact. In this case, both Aronson and Elliot are making the point that an "unchangeable scientific fact" may be objective, but the way that we choose to apply the fact is what ultimately matters when it comes to the development of racism on an "objective" basis.
Combining the narrative of fiction and the formal argument of non-fiction is something that can be used to greatly enhance both your argument and the audience's experience of reading the text. It can be the element of your writing that can separate reading the dictionary from reading Harry Potter -- it benefits you both aesthetically and rhetorically. Having a realistic application or example is a highly effective way to make your argument more memorable and grounded rather than dry and abstract. Because in the end, fiction and non-fiction are only divided by the Dewey Decimal System.
Hi Patrick! You've done it again with an entertaining and enlightening blog post. I related to the way you described your former view of nonfiction; I, too, used to avoid it at all costs, preferring fiction. Now, it seems that I mostly read nonfiction -- my former self would be horrified.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated your analysis of the vignettes Aronson uses, because that's partially what I wrote my first blog post about. I agree with you when you say that they are an effective way to bridge the gap between narrative and information, and I think they make the text much more readable.
You specifically mentioned the vignette about Jane Elliot, which reminded me that that passage stuck out to me, too, because I had heard about that experiment before. It's certainly interesting (and scary), but I wonder what it was like to be one of those kids. Do you think what Elliot did was ethical? I wonder how it impacted the children after she told them that the whole thing had been an experiment.
Good discussion of the narrative style of the book. Do you think it matters that some of the vignettes he begins sections with are fictional? Does it lessen the effect at all?
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate narrative non-fiction, far more than I thought I would, as I have always been a reader of fiction.
Your post explained the "divide" between fiction and non-fiction very well and in a way that I had never really considered before. I've always been a fiction reader and tended to avoid nonfiction books because I found them tedious, but the way some authors can write their nonfiction pieces, such as Aronson in Race, has changed my perspective. I especially like your closing sentence, I think it encapsulates your point very well and is worded very cleverly. Again, your post was very well written and entertaining.
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