Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 2009 Literary Journalism Studies Richard Critchfield: “Genius” Journalism and the Fallacy of Verification by Miles Maguire The Citizen-Witness and the Politics of Shame: Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Aryn Bartley Book Excerpt The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son (Random House Canada) by Ian Brown Reflective Essay Writing What You See, Not What You Think You See by Ian Brown Unraveling the Webs of Intimacy and Influence: Willie Morris and Harper’s Magazine, 1967–1971 by Berkley Hudson and Rebecca Townsend The Literary Mind of a Cornfield Journalist: Joel Chandler Harris’s 1904 Negro Question Articles by Cheryl Renee Gooch Getting Away From It All: The Literary Journalism of David Foster Wallace and Nietzsche’s Concept of Oblivion by Joshua Roiland LJS The journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies On the Cover The ghost image in the background of our cover depicts Toronto writer Ian Brown on a chaise longue with his severely challenged son, Walker. Father and son enjoy a calm moment together in cottage country, a couple of hundred kilometers north of the city. Walker Brown is the subject of Ian Brown’s book, The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son (Random House Canada). The excerpt begins on page 41, followed by Ian Brown’s essay on the joys and difficulties of writing literary journalism. Photo courtesy of Ian Brown Literary Journalism Studies The Journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 2009 Contents 6 For Contributors 7 A Note From the Executive Editor… Essay 9 Richard Critchfield: “Genius” Journalism and the Fallacy of Verification by Miles Maguire Best Research Paper, IALJS-4 23 The Citizen-Witness and the Politics of Shame: Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Aryn Bartley Book Excerpt 43 The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son (Random House Canada) by Ian Brown Reflective Essay 57 Writing What You See, Not What You Think You See by Ian Brown 63 Unraveling the Webs of Intimacy and Influence: Willie Morris and Harper’s Magazine, 1967–1971 by Berkley Hudson and Rebecca Townsend 79 The Literary Mind of a Cornfield Journalist: Joel Chandler Harris’s 1904 Negro Question Articles by Cheryl Renee Gooch 89 Getting Away From It All: The Literary Journalism of David Foster Wallace and Nietzsche’s Concept of Oblivion by Joshua Roiland Book Reviews 108 Jan Whitt on Amy Mattson Lauters’s The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane: Literary Journalist 111 John S. Bak on William Dow’s Narrating Class in American Fiction 114 Kathy Roberts Forde on Doug Underwood’s Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000 117 James Silas Rogers on Norman Sims’s Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century 120 Todd Schack on Dexter Filkins’s The Forever War 123 Bill Reynolds on Steve Lopez’s The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship and the Redemptive Power of Music 126 Mission Statement 127 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies Copyright © 2009 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies. All rights reserved. Published twice a year, Spring and Fall Subscriptions: $50/year (individuals); $75/year (libraries) ISSN 1994-897X Literary Journalism Studies John C. Hartsock, Editor State University of New York at Cortland, U.S.A. Bill Reynolds, Executive Editor Ryerson University, Canada Jenny McKay, Associate Editor University of Stirling, Scotland William Dow, Managing Editor American University of Paris, France Book Review Editor Thomas B. Connery University of St. Thomas, U.S.A. Circulation Manager Ginger Carter Miller Georgia College and State University, U.S.A. Editorial Offices Literary Journalism Studies State University of New York at Cortland Department of Communication Studies P.O. Box 2000 Cortland, New York 13045-0900 U.S.A. [email protected] Literary Journalism Studies is the journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies and is published twice yearly. At present the print version is only available through membership in the association. For information on membership, go to www.ialjs.org. Member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals Published at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University 1845 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A. 6 Literary Journalism Studies For Contributors Literary Journalism Studies invites submission of scholarly articles on literary journalism, which is also known as narrative journalism, literary reportage, reportage literature, New Journalism, and the nonfiction novel, as well as literary nonfiction and creative nonfiction that emphasizes cultural revelation. The journal has an international focus and seeks sub- missions on the theory, history, and pedagogy of literary journalism throughout the world. All disciplinary approaches are welcome. Submissions should be informed with an aware- ness of the existing scholarship and should be between three thousand and eight thousand words in length, including notes. To encourage international dialogue, the journal is open to publishing one short example or an excerpt of literary journalism per issue accompanied by a scholarly gloss about a writer not widely known outside his or her country. The example or excerpt must be translated into English. The scholarly gloss must be between fifteen hundred and twenty-five hundred words long and indicate why the example is important in the context of its national culture. Together, both the text and the gloss must not exceed eight thousand words in length. The contributor is responsible for obtaining all copyright per- missions, including from the publisher, author and translator as necessary. The journal is also willing to consider publication of exclusive excerpts of narrative literary journalism accepted for publication by major publishers. Submission by email as a Microsoft Word attachment is mandatory. A cover page with the title of the paper, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information, plus an abstract of fifty to one hundred words, should accompany all submissions. The cover page should be sent as a separate attachment from the abstract and submission to facilitate distribution to readers. The author’s name should not appear on the abstract or on the paper. All submissions must be in English and follow Chicago Manual of Style (Humanities endnote style) www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. All submissions will be blind reviewed. Send submissions to editor John C. Hartsock at [email protected]. Copyright reverts to the contributor after publication with the provision that if republished reference is made to initial publication in Literary Journalism Studies. Book reviews of one thousand to two thousand words on both the scholarship of literary journalism and recent original works of literary journalism that deserve greater recognition among scholars are invited. Book reviews are not blind reviewed but selected by the book review editor based on merit. Reviewers may suggest book review prospects or write the book review editor for suggestions. Usually reviewers will be responsible for obtaining their respective books. Book reviews and/or related queries should be sent to Thomas B. Connery at [email protected]. Editor’s Note 7 A Note From the Executive Editor… by Bill Reynolds ast Thursday, in my weekly Feature Writing Workshop class, I handed to students one sheet of paper with typing on both sides. It contained twenty-five factual bits of informa- Ltion about events that happened to me when I was eighteen years old. I knew all of these facts to be true, although I changed the names of the characters to ‘Joe’ and ‘Rebecca.’ I asked my students to use between twelve and fifteen of those facts, no less, no more, in order to write a scene. The scene could be written however they wanted—from Joe’s point of view, or Rebecca’s, or perhaps the omniscient narrator’s. They consumed about twenty minutes of class before I finally called, “Time’s up!” I insisted they read aloud their works in their best broadcast quality voices. Many of the baker’s dozen in attendance chose to stick safely to the script, inferring only what logically could be inferred from the facts. Their prose was generally acceptable, but rarely did it come alive. A few, however, took liberties, and this is where things got interesting, because some of those liberties looked not only plausible but also legitimate. They dug inside Rebecca’s head and tried to think the way she was thinking. Indeed, some statements went beyond basic inference, yet did not cross a border to become factually incorrect. For instance, when Joe arrived in Banff, Alberta, he stayed at Rebecca’s place because he had nowhere else to go. Rebecca already had a job, but Joe didn’t. No job, no accommodation, and a steadily dwindling cash supply. He imposed on Rebecca for nine days before finally landing a summer job. Some students interpreted the fact that Rebecca yelled at Joe once to mean Rebecca frequently must have been angry with her shiftless boyfriend. One student, however, modulated Rebecca’s scorn. He wrote from the point of view of a frustrated girlfriend who loved Joe but resorted to barking at him to incite him to find paid work. This is not only closer to the correct psychological take, but hints at the gray nature of reality. Rebecca is angry not in cartoon-like fashion but in a tempered way. I mention this exercise because, for me at least, it gets the writer, the teacher, and the scholar of literary journalism a bit closer to the crux of a persistent problem: Where exactly is that truth boundary, as Norman Sims characterizes it? Does it move? Is it a formidable looking Ligne Maginot that is surprisingly easy to circumvent? Is it purely situational? When is it okay to cross? Never? Sometimes, depending on the circumstances? The truth boundary, alas, may well be literary journalism’s bête noire.