Let's argue forever :)

“All fiction can be profitably regarded as argument.” Agree, disagree?

The minute I began pondering this question, a steady stream of fiction I’m familiar with proceeded to crowd my thoughts. Books that show rather than tell a point of view, creations of new worlds, better worlds, worse worlds, stories told in chapters or diary pages, poems with made up narrators that collect like photographs tears or joys on the page. Don’t they argue? Do they?

So, let’s say for the moment that fiction does serve as a platform well-suited for argument. What is this “profitably regarded” nonsense? Must an argument be profitable to exist? Profitable in that it makes money? That’s silly. Profitable in that it invites opposing conversation? Maybe. So why must an argument be profitable to be regarded? Regarded where? Where is this mysterious arena where we are regarding fiction, assuming that all fiction inherently holds a stance in an argument?

Anyways, isn’t everything an argument? After all, an argument can be made (and has been made by one of my favorite philosophers of language, Derrida) that all thought, all narrative, fiction or not, embodies two sides of one coin in one shape or another, portrays both the powerful and the powerless in some way.

So if you’re asking whether all fiction is argumentative, I say yes. Every work of fiction, whether subtly or outright, does present an argument, does present privileged language, choice morals, favored points of view, whatever it is you’re looking to argue about. And if you’re looking to argue profitably, there will always be someone on the other end who disagrees about the narrative itself or how the narrative presents that argument. That’s what you’re looking for, right? Or would you like to argue about it?

Comments

"You don't look like your dad!" Tales of Legal Adoption

"You don't look like your dad. You must be the spitting image of your mother!" or "Your brothers look just like your dad! I bet you take after your momma." I heard these statements a lot growing up. And it's true. I don't look like my dad. And for a while, I didn't really look like my mom. I do now, but that isn't the point. You see, my dad adopted me when I was around six or seven years old. He had been a part of my life, for, well, all of it. When my mother and biological father (sometimes I refer to him as my sperm donor, because I think it's funny, but his name is Chris), got divorced, my dad, Kenny, married my mom resulting in a blended family of me, who was biologically my mom's, and my two brothers, who were biologically his. Suddenly I went from being the only child to being the middle child in a family dynamic that takes a lot of explaining to do. They say divorce and the things I supposedly went through in my early childhood...

Melanie and Melanie: Growing up with Separated Lesbian Moms in the South

I came from a sperm bank, well I came from a vagina, but first I came from a sperm bank. That’s not generally my opener, but we need to make it clear. My moms discovered their sexuality long before I came along in 1992. When I was three, they separated. Gay marriage had not been legalized up to this point, so there was no divorce process involved. However, my mama, Sharon, she gave birth to me, and she wanted full custody of me. My other mom, Sylvia, worked tirelessly to pay for my existence and Sharon’s pregnancy care; she loved me, and I was her child no matter what. They went to court, and Sylvia became one of the first lesbian parents in the state of Texas to receive shared custody of a child that was not biologically hers. In some cases, this still doesn’t always happen, particularly in cases with gay and lesbian parents, regardless of how involved the parent is in their child’s life. “Who do you want to live with?” Flash forward seven years or so, and I’m being given more...

Speech in its essence is not neutral.

“All fiction can be profitably regarded as argument” The OED Online defines “profitably” as: “with advantage or benefit; usefully” ("profitably, adv."). “Profitably” caught me off guard, but when I consider it in this junction, I’m inclined to agree. I found this quote in a work by Ronald Sukenick called Narralogues: Truth in Fiction . Sukenick makes this argument after establishing that he finds “significance” through the narrative as opposed to the plot. When I originally read the word “profitably” I felt myself wanting to be in disagreement with the claim because of the monetary implications of “profit.” Then again, I found it hard to make a case for a work of fiction that didn’t stand to gain from profit. We all have writings (and maybe even written narratives) that we don’t plan on showing to the world, but it’s hard to imagine not being willing to exchange those writings when offered money. That’s not an ideal way of thinking, but we don’t live in an ideal world. ...

ENG 6283: Narrative Theory

Search This Blog