THE DOCTOR IS IN

DANGEROUS FICTION

One hundred years ago Monday, Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough shot and killed David Graham Phillips, a writer who, he believed, had insulted Goldsborough’s wealthy Washington family in one of his novels. 

Goldsborough was clearly unbalanced. According to Peter Duffy, “Not only did Goldsborough believe that Margaret Severance…was based on his beloved sister. He also came to believe that Phillips had the power to read his mind, what he called in his diary a ‘lucrative method of literary vampirism.’” 

Shortly before expiring, Phillips disavowed Goldsborough’s accusation. But what if he had, indeed, based an unattractive character on an actual person? As Duffy writes, “After all, the fiction writer has pledged an oath to serve a calling higher than mere feelings. Why should F. Scott Fitzgerald worry over the sensitivities of Max Gerlach in creating Jay Gatsby?” 

Artists are rats. We snatch morsels of experience—our own, our friends and acquaintances’, even sometimes the work of other writers—and scurry back to our nests to arrange them to our purpose. We don’t mean any harm (most of the time). 

And yet, intention isn’t everything. I can push you down the stairs without intending to hurt you—I just want to get by, and you’re in my way—and your hip will be just as broken as if my purpose had been malicious. 

So what is our responsibility here? How protective do we need to be of others’ sensibilities, when we write fiction and, more transparently, memoir? 

I’m not an ethicist, and I don’t have clear-cut guidelines. I do think that this is a question we need to ask ourselves, not during the original writing process, but as we edit and revise. And not just because the wrong answer might get us shot. 

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D.,is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity(Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog, and she is a regular guest panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.  

Comments

[Paul Elwork]

What a great column! I love your image of the artist as a rat. It reminds me of something Faulkner wrote (and I saw this on a literary calendar; I didn't find it in deep explorations of musty libraries): "The true artist is amoral, in that he will beg, borrow, and steal from any source [paraphrase]."

I love how--with your usual nuanced touch--you delineate the tensions between the freedom to write what you need to write and consideration of other people's feelings. It is too handy to say either one trumps the other, as you suggest. Just another existential concern, right? Might as well cozy up with it, get acquainted. One more quote, from Douglas Clegg, and then I'll disappear: "Doubt is your friend."

[Carolyn Jewel]

For the answer to your question, I refer you to http://www.rightsofwriters.com/

Several of his posts touch on precisely this issue. I think his blog is a must read for authors.

[Illustratefriday.blogspot.com]

What an important topic this is. Even if you write science fiction about life in a distant galaxy, I think some of your characters will show uncanny resemblances to those around you. It's an occupational hazard. The best solution is to keep writing. Over time and through trial and error you will get better at creating unique characters.