Dangerous Fictions

In a cultural moment when panics over the stories we tell are at their peak, Fictional stories have long been imagined to hold an uncanny power over hearts and minds, especially those of young people. These days, everybody frets about fiction: according to the National Coalition Against Censorship, the current wave of book bans is the worst since the 1980s, and our cultural debates are consumed by questions about the politics and moral responsibility of storytelling. Can readers and viewers, at any age, be harmed by what they read and see? In Fiction is the story of other people: that, more than anything else, is what makes it dangerous. From YA readers condemning faults in representation, to debates over the moral worth of controversial works like Lolita, to conservative calls to ban literature that might make white readers feel guilty about American history, people of all political stripes clearly believe stories hold considerable political power. From novels about people driven insane by reading novels to “copaganda” TV shows that impact how viewers regard the police, Gold uses her signature wit, research, and fearless commentary to point readers towards a more substantial question: fiction may be dangerous to us, but aren’t we also dangerous to it?...

Auteur
Lyta Gold is a critic, essayist, and fiction writer living in Queens. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Protean, the New York Review of Architecture, and Current Affairs.