Le Provocateur

Issue date: 9/15/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment

In My Book: How Fabulous is The Fabulist?

We have all lied before. It's human nature. Chances are our little white lies and slight embellishments of the truth have affected others in our lives, our relationships, and our own credibility. Often, time heals the wounds caused by our untruthfulness. But how do you rectify a life, relationship, and credibility that have been irrevocably damaged? In The Fabulist, Stephen Glass's first novel inspired by actual events, the author allows readers an intimate look at not only his greatest accomplishments, but also his lowest and most shameful moments.
Glass uses his personal story as inspiration for the main character in The Fabulist. The novel recounts several months in the life of a once-successful young magazine journalist in Washington, D.C. As Glass's protagonist, who shares the same name as the author himself, is suspected of making up one of his feature articles, he reveals that in his hardly-begun career he has fabricated stories before.
Stephen Glass is just one of many journalists for national news print organizations who, within the past decade, was fired for making up articles about supposedly factual events. Glass was editor of his college newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the staff of The New Repubic magazine in 1995. Soon thereafter, he was fired at the age of 25 from his Associate Editorial position for having six complete articles and portions of 21 others.
"My life was one very long process of lying and lying again, to figure out how to cover those other lies," Glass said in an interview with 60 Minutes last year. "And I said to myself what I said every time these stories ran, 'You must stop. You must stop.' But I didn't."
In an age where telling lies on a large scale to the American public has become increasingly prevalent, Americans do no know who to trust - where the truth ends, and the lies begin. Glass had a duty to tell the truth. His position as a reporter gave him credibility, which he lost by intentionally deceiving his audience.
"The general trend of the stories is that they started out with a few made up details and quotes," said Glass. "And I granted a few too many, of course. And then they progressed into stories that were completely fabricated. Just completely made up out of whole cloth."
For Glass, truth in reporting was not a concrete concept. Readers of the New Republic did not think to question Glass's integrity. Even other editors of The New Republic editors could not detect Glass's fabrications.
"He had a way of hovering affably around everything," said Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic. "He was sweet in what turned out to be this very sinister way."
Glass's lies were so expertly hidden that over time, even he came to believe his "fabulous" claims. What, does this tell us about "truth?" For something to be true, do all the facts have to be there, or is widespread acceptance enough?
Philosophers understand "Truth," with a capital "T," as certainties in the world, consistencies in thought and behavior that affect all human beings. In contrast, "truth" in politics, relationships, and even journalism is not so easily defined. So who decides what is true and what is not? Have you had an experience with someone else, and then disagreed regarding the sequence of events after the fact? Who gets to decide which perception of the experience is true? Does someone have to be definitely right, and someone definitely wrong? Perhaps the philosophic "Truth" is that there is no "truth."
Glass was willing to sacrifice his credibility and career by forsaking this difficult-to-define "truth" for the sake of pleasing others.
"I wanted a story that I thought would be the perfect story," said Glass. "And that the readers would most enjoy to read."
"There's a deep feeling of self-loathing and a feeling that I was not good enough in any respect," Glass said in another interview. "I wasn't a good enough journalist, or a good enough friend, or a good enough boyfriend, or a good enough son, or a good enough brother. And so I believe I lied to deceive people in thinking better of me."
Having since left the field of journalism behind, the young thirty-something is currently at work on his second novel, and is considering a career in law since completing law school and passing the New York bar exam's written test.
The Fabulist is a touching book for anyone who has struggled with telling the truth and facing the repercussions of deceiving others. For his incredible story-crafting ability and the extraordinary development of his protagonist, both The Fabulist and author Stephen Glass get a 9 out of 10, in my book.
Sophomore
English

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