Nonfiction is about The Facts - Fiction is about The Truth. And if you don't read both, you'll never know one from the other.Originally Posted by john gault
"That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett
i cant belive we are still posting about Bryson... But there we are. We need a new author.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
q matthewski. i belive i may be needed here. i have never read a book cover to cover in my life. books are dead. sorry. somebody has to be me,.... anyway, so i dont ever read. hate it. belive its bad. sorry again. i feel yall felling sorry . dont. yall tweeked. see, life is big. and books are small. sorry. books are simply the walkmans of the past. the drugs of the waypast. the problem from the beggining? may i be so bold? feeel the same way about recorded music and film. sorry. i dont like tecnology. i wanna be cavemen with smarts. i wish we had all our inventions in our heads and still lived around fires with crazy ideas. is that wrong?
Mweinstone,
It sounds like you could benefit from reading a book or two
bye the way:
they still sell the Sony Walkman personal cassette player. It just won't die.
No doubt, the discussion of Bill Bryson and AWITW is BEATEN to DEATH here at WB but, that's what I would expect when a discussion arises about a book written about hiking the AT is discussed at a website devoted to hiking the AT. SO many can relate to the book! And, this is also why the book is over-analyzed here at WB?
Jester and Luddite, you posed good questions earlier. Jester, I know AWITW is categorized as non-fiction. I also know I came on quite strong with my comments about AWITW being fiction. I get my opinion because as I read Bryson's Prefac/Introduction in AWITW he alludes to NOT viewing his work as a documentary, reference or how-to hike the AT type book. I don't have the book in front of me though so I'm not going to quote anything directly. I also know that his hiking companion Katz is not based on one person, as another poster also mentioned. Katz is a composite personality of more than one person so as to make the read that much more interesting! To me, that means Katz, as described in AWITW, is not a REAL individual, as in he's a fictional character. Jester, as you have mentioned, I wonder what other literary leeway Bryson took to make the book a more enjoyable read!
I also know several thru-hikers who hiked the same yr as Bryson claims he hiked and was in the vicinity of where Bryson claimed to be at specific dates. ALL the AT-thru-hikers I spoke to(8-10 individuals) said the author greatly exaggerated the weather and trail conditions described in the book. Again, the fictional aspects make for a more interesting read.
I could get into other aspects of why I think
I have also read some of Bryson's other works. As Skyline has mentioned in another AWITW thread, Bryson's character Katz admits in, Thunderbolt Kid, that AWITW is "mostly fictional."
I could discuss other fictional aspects/elements in AWITW, however, I'm with WOO, I've had enough analyzing AWITW. I will leave it with these two statements, I pose the question, "how much fiction can a book contain and still be considered non-fiction? IMO, I think it most accurate to state that AWITW is largely a factual account with some fiction thrown in for good book selling measure!
Did I fail to mention I like the author? I liked AWITW; I read it twice. I enjoyed the historical accounts of the AT, global warming issues, hilarious, at times, story, the social and political aspects of the AT, and the impact and connectivity the AT has had on adjacent areas and how those areas have impacted the AT.
And yet, somehow, you communicate interactively on this board. Remarkable. Osmosis?
The more miles, the merrier!
NH4K: 21/48; N.E.4K: 25/67; NEHH: 28/100; Northeast 4K: 27/115; AT: 124/2191
Probably not, like any one of us.
Authors die. Their thoughts and ideas live on in their works.i have never read a book cover to cover in my life. books are dead. sorry. somebody has to be me,.... anyway, so i dont ever read. hate it. belive its bad. sorry again. i feel yall felling sorry . dont.
Nope, just educated.yall tweeked.
Books, music, film, art, etc, expand one's world beyond their own little corner of it allowing them to experience part of what others live - part of the world and life they would never otherwise see.see, life is big. and books are small. sorry. books are simply the walkmans of the past. the drugs of the waypast. the problem from the beggining? may i be so bold? feeel the same way about recorded music and film. sorry.
. . . he types into the electronic machine that broadcasts his thought worldwide at near the speed of lighti dont like tecnology.
No, just ignorant.i wanna be cavemen with smarts. i wish we had all our inventions in our heads and still lived around fires with crazy ideas. is that wrong?
"That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett
I'm sure in the movie version he will hike the entire trail, meet some adversity and then a woman who will help him overcome that adversity. In the final scene he will triumphantly scale Katahdin. Movie goers will think Bryson is awesome and then they'll re-release the book with "new information."
Pain is a by-product of a good time.
Funny you should bring that up. Sony announced today that they were finally stopping production of the Walkman. They stopped producing Matthewskis years ago.
So the book has survived the Walkman. ...
The more miles, the merrier!
NH4K: 21/48; N.E.4K: 25/67; NEHH: 28/100; Northeast 4K: 27/115; AT: 124/2191
2 comments:
1. I'm reading the Ed Garvey book right now. Very interesting read, i.e. him bragging about the new-fangled SVEA stoves.
2. Redford should be playing Bob Peoples.
You're reading right now, so you can't hate reading. You just have a problem with pieces of paper in between boards?
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
-Edward Abbey
New AT movie
Maybe we could get a ."Borat on the Appalachian Trail" Borat meets Mattthewski and hikes with him for a few weeks.
Everyone has a photographic memory. Not everyone has film.
LOL. You are reading/predicting the same thing as me FredMugs. Hollywood movies are generally not based totally in reality and neither are some of the books that are categorized as non-fiction.
If I had $1 for every Touron/Tourist that has asked/quizzed me on "did you see A Walk In The Woods or Into The Wild" I could afford that new Valandre down sleeping bag I've had on my gear wish list!
it's just an advertising gimmick, remember "New Coke"? no ideas on mweinstone, but open your bounce box carefully!
Aside from a small number of documentaries, every single Hollywood movie is considered by the film industry to be fictional. That's why movies based on actual events are described as being "based on a true story."
Non-fiction books are expected by the publishing industry to be true accounts of people's lives or events. Non-fiction means just that, and no amount of James-Frey-style hemming and hawing will change it.
So, yeah, Hollywood can take the title and rewrite the whole thing, and no one should particularly care. But we should care when a book with many fictional elements is categorized by the author & publisher as non-fiction.
And, um, regardless of all of this, it's never going to be made into a movie, just like the vast majority of properties that Hollywood purchases.
Jester, you are the official advertising and marketing exec for AWITW when it's made into a movie!
Good Lord that's a terrible idea.
no, he won't hike the entire trail. It would be too boring to have to sit through a movie about a entire thru hike. A partial hike of the trail would be much more tolerable. His book was so good in part because his hike failed.
Panzer
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