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JeffSharlet

@HaroldItz @leolabeth But you said it better. about 3 hours ago via web in reply to HaroldItz
@leolabeth @HaroldItz Of course, fiction badly done can change the world for the better, too -- Uncle Tom's Cabin. about 3 hours ago via web in reply to leolabeth
@leolabeth @HaroldItz Tho, let's be honest, fiction badly done is even more likely to change the real world. Thomas Dixon's The Clansman about 3 hours ago via web in reply to leolabeth
@HaroldItz @amasonny Fiction writers don't "build from scratch"; nobody "already buys into" the world good literary journalists reveal. about 4 hours ago via web in reply to HaroldItz
@HaroldItz @amasonny Of course! I didn't say fiction was lesser. about 4 hours ago via web in reply to HaroldItz
@HaroldItz @amasonny But isn't plausibility a low bar? "This *could* be real"? Vs the stakes of nonfiction: "This *is* real." about 4 hours ago via web in reply to HaroldItz
@kristinrawls @joshua_eaton This scholar doesn't believe Museveni will ever give up power, but either way, it ain't gonna be Janet. about 4 hours ago via web in reply to kristinrawls
@kristinrawls @joshua_eaton Just asked an eminent Ugandan politics scholar about Museveni endorsement. "Yoweri's old tricks," he said. about 4 hours ago via web in reply to kristinrawls
One of my favorite editors, @amasonny, is now on twitter. I don't know if she wants followers, but you shld find out. about 4 hours ago via web
@amasonny After teaching fic, nonfic, & poetry, I think nonfiction & poetry are the closest cousins. Both take work. The work is the work. about 6 hours ago via web in reply to amasonny
@amasonny I am! (So you shld argue.) But to clarify: fact that it's easy to believe in fiction doesn't make it lesser. Different. about 6 hours ago via web in reply to amasonny
@joshua_eaton @kristinrawls He doesn't need that to keep his ties with powerful evangelicals. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to joshua_eaton
@SebastosPublius Not a fan of "It Can't Happen Here." Didactic stuff. And wrong - tone deaf to the nature of American authoritarianism. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to SebastosPublius
@joshua_eaton @kristinrawls It matters quite a bit. 1. He's not. 2. If he was, #killthegays would have already passed. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to joshua_eaton
@joshua_eaton @kristinrawls There's a lot more to it than that, going back to the revival of 1935 & later Idi Amin as icon of evil. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to joshua_eaton
"I believe myself to be Joe Gould." - Joe Gould, to Joseph Mitchell. Nonfiction's always a question of belief. A question. about 7 hours ago via web
@joshua_eaton @kristinrawls The Cornerstone School, run by Tim Kreutter, is a big part of my book C Street. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to joshua_eaton
@alienvsrobbins When everything's at stake, the reader can become consumer, voracious. When *something's* at stake, reader must engage. about 7 hours ago via web in reply to alienvsrobbins
@alienvsrobbins And thus nothing. I'm speaking not of individual works but of fiction, the category -- the "entertainment." about 7 hours ago via web in reply to alienvsrobbins
It's easy to believe in fiction. Nothing's at stake. Believing in nonfiction takes work. Fiction is received. Nonfiction is collaboration. about 7 hours ago via web