Monday, June 16, 2008
Stranger Than Fiction
In his novel The War of the End of the World, Mario Vargas Llosa illustrates how an inability to communicate can cripple an entire society. Undergirding the pervasive misunderstanding that contributed to the tragedy at the center of this historical fiction, says Llosa, was the perpetuation of rumor and fantasy by journalists, politicians and academics. A confirmed believer in the power of fictitious literature to benefit mankind in comprehending reality, Llosa also believes that fiction in politics is inevitably catastrophic. As anyone who has lived an authentic life knows, life is indeed stranger than fiction.
