I.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury — before the defense begins, I propose two axioms regarding the dangers of literary myth-making which we should all be able to agree upon:
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Writing autofiction inherently invites myth-making.
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You cannot control a myth. Once an author’s life becomes myth, it no longer belongs to him or her, but to the people.
If these are acceptable, perhaps we can add a slightly more controversial maxim:
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Most attempts to ‘counter’ a myth result in the creation of a new myth, not a distillation of factual truth.
In the past two hundred years, no country has been more invested in elevating authors to the strata of myth than the United States of America. And in the past fifty years, no country has been more invested in tearing down those very myths.
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