Fancy That!

[Paul Mackin]

Keith's quote from Oakley Hall puts me in mind of the fact that
Aristotle's famous remark on the subject of fiction versus factual
narration was quoted in the current issue of NYRB in a completely
nonPynchonian context. My question is how should we apply it to Pynchon.

[History] . . . relates actual events, the other the kinds of things that
might occur. Consequently, poetry is more philosophical and more elevated
than history, since poetry relates more of the universal, while history
relates particulars.

			P.


On Wed, 12 Jan 2000, Full Monty wrote:

> >From *Warlock* by Oakley Hall
> 
> PREFATORY NOTE
> 
> This book is a novel. The town of Warlock and the territory in which it is
> located are fabrications. But any relation of the characters to real
> persons, living or dead, is not always coincidental, for many are
> composities of figures who live still on a frontier between history and
> legend.
> 
> The fabric of the story, too, is made up of actual events interwoven with
> invented ones; by combining what did happen with what might have happened, I
> have tried to show what should have happened. Devotees of Western legend may
> consequently complain that I have used familiar elements to construct a
> fanciful design, and that I have rearranged or ignored the accepted facts.
> So I will reiterate that this work is a novel. The pusuit of truth, not of
> facts, is the business of fiction.
> 
> --Oakley Hall
> 
> 
> 
>