Keep the Peace
by Ann Bogle
I could write this as a microfiction, but why call it fiction if it happened? As Mary Karr said in her The Paris Review interview—controversy, that there is controversy, regarding whether a story is fiction or nonfiction is bullshit. If it happened, it's nonfiction; if you made it up, it's fiction.
Holly C. (if she Googles herself, she'll find herself here) arrived at a sober party (was it the party where she wore the fur on New Year's Eve then went off to meet her real friends before the midnight hour?) (No, Sandra C. hosted the New Year's Eve party each year, and this party was at Nancy E.'s house) (so not wearing a mink that night) alone. She was dating an ex-NFL football player then living in Ohio, she in Minnesota, her children Amerasian, her husband an anesthesiologist from China, her green eyes from Iowa. Whatever! I said, “Holly, your face is so serene.” She might have thought that I was being sarcastic about Bill Wilson group, but I was not being sarcastic. To me, serene was an adjective not coined by Bill Wilson, and it was the right one for the occasion. Holly said, “It'll happen to you, too, one day, you know.” I thought, what are we talking about? Botox? I was 36 or so. Holly must have been 42. It stayed with me that she had said that, “It'll happen to you, too, one day, you know.” Later I thought of writing someone like her into my novel about Texas, moved to Minnesota by then. I planned to call her Pumper the Realtor who sold houses in the boom caused by divorce in A.A. I planned to write about Pumper, “Her face was trapped in peace.”
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Author's Note
Appears along with eight other stories in a group called "In Audience," _Connotation Press_, Robert Clark Young, Ed., Issue II, Volume VII, November 2015.
A thread I started at M ILLNESS group called "Keep the peace"
Is it a M ILLNESS story? Is A.A. M_ILLNESS? Hey, A.A. Milne. Winnie the Pooh!
Other stories by Ann Bogle
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I did look up Holly H. I saw a photo but it was small... Lacked detail. I couldn't tell whether or not it seemed peaceful.
Steve, thank God T. is rich, in case any fool tries to sue me for saying something that is true. Guides are Mary Karr, who trashes her white-trash family, who must be pretty tight-knit, in print, and Anne Lamott, who teaches that our life stories are ours and, "If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better." Mary Karr just came out with a country album. Legalities. Carol Novack, a 20-year criminal defense att'y in Manhattan, said to me, taught me, "Truth is the ultimate defense." In defamation law, factors other than truth, especially in the Philippines (take note), darkening the character of the dead, for example, may have sway. If a statement is within the social interest and true, it ought to be regarded as founded and legal. Who decides? A judge on the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled in a $10 K lawsuit brought by "Bryson" about the use of her last name in a fiction short story, that yes, Bryson had been defamed by the fiction in which she is referred to as "a slut," a case studied years later by Caroline Kennedy.
I like the complexity of the writing reflected in the miasma of reality and the purity of thought.
" a realtor, dating an ex-NFL football player then living in Ohio and she in Minnesota, her children Amerasian, her husband an anesthesiologist from China, her green eyes from Iowa."
So rich!
*
How can this seem o casual and improvised at the same time it seems so carefully puzzled together Wonderful.
intriguing puzzle *
An interesting collage of images and rifts in time.I like how the title resonates with the serenity of the botoxed face.
Thanks, Dan, Bill, Jim, Penny, and Gary V. Powell. I appreciate your reading, commenting, and fav'ing the story.
First paragraph, first draft:
"I could write this as a microfiction, but why call it fiction if it happened? As Mary Karr said, controversy, that there is controversy, re: fiction and nonfiction, is bullshit. If it happened, it's nonfiction; if you made it up, it's fiction. Karr said or wrote that in The Paris Review interview with her."
I rephrased the first paragraph today, 1:20 p.m.
I have to disagree that there is such a clear distinction between nonfiction and fiction unless you are a journalist. All memoir is part fiction because that is how memory works for us to make meaning.
Ah...shall a word have meaning or only allusiveness? Just a terrific story.
I agree Gloria. And it ain't all that clear for journalists either, though most might pretend it is.
Supposedly there is a Zuni proverb: "There are no truths; there are only stories." But the Zuni attribution may not be true.
splendid writing.
Gloria, Sally, and James, thanks for your reading and comments. They add to the query of the piece. Names. Even in fiction, even with disguised characters that are composites, a person can sue and even independent publishers carry insurance policies to protect them.
Sally, "Supposedly there is a Zuni proverb: 'There are no truths; there are only stories.' But the Zuni attribution may not be true."
Isn't truth the ultimate fiction? Loved the collision/collusion of the two consciousnesses.
Thanks, J.A.
Hairline revisions 1:51 p.m. CDT Oct. 16, 2012.