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FIRST LINES FROM NEW BOOKS OUT TODAY: FEBRUARY 27, 2012 “I’ve got a fun assignment for somebody. We just received a new piece from John D’Agata that needs to be fact-checked, thoroughly. Apparently he’s taken some liberties, which he’s admitted to, but I want to know to what extent.”The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata (author) and Jim Fingal (fact-checker) “Some people think emotionally more often than they think politically. Some think politically more often than they think rationally. Others never think rationally about anything at all. No judgment implied. Just an observation.”Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson and edited by Avis Lang “The English 4th Baron Raglan, Major FitzRoy Richard Somerset of the Queen’s Grenadier Guards, once remarked that ‘culture is roughly everything we do and monkeys don’t.’ This comment nicely summarizes one of the main messages of this book.”Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel

FIRST LINES FROM NEW BOOKS OUT TODAY: FEBRUARY 27, 2012

“I’ve got a fun assignment for somebody. We just received a new piece from John D’Agata that needs to be fact-checked, thoroughly. Apparently he’s taken some liberties, which he’s admitted to, but I want to know to what extent.”
The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata (author) and Jim Fingal (fact-checker)

“Some people think emotionally more often than they think politically. Some think politically more often than they think rationally. Others never think rationally about anything at all. No judgment implied. Just an observation.”
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson and edited by Avis Lang

“The English 4th Baron Raglan, Major FitzRoy Richard Somerset of the Queen’s Grenadier Guards, once remarked that ‘culture is roughly everything we do and monkeys don’t.’ This comment nicely summarizes one of the main messages of this book.”
Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel

Slate Reviews ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’, Then Fact-Checks Review

“Whether you will be delighted or disgusted by The Lifespan of a Fact depends on what kind of reader you are. Are my misquotes, misrepresentations, and lies OK because, though I’ve never met John D’Agata or Jim Fingal, after reading this enraging, fascinating, singular book, I feel as though I know them? Is this review a clever trick or a cheat, a critique or an appreciation? Is it a work of art or am I a lying sack of shit? Are those the only options?”

—Dan Kois reviews The Lifespan of a Fact, Slate.com. Dan’s review is then fact-checked. It’s the funhouse mirror of book reviews.

The Lifespan of a Fact. John D'Agata (author). Jim Fingal (fact checker). In stores 2/27/12.

Jim Fingal:
John, do you have a source for this?

John D'Agata:
I heard about this from a woman I interviewed at the Aztec Inn.

Jim:
Can you send me a copy of your notes from this interview?

John:
I didn't keep notes from the interview.

Jim:
To be honest, I suspect your "casual" interviewing strategy is going to be a problem, because it means that we're not going to have anything that can remotely come close to proving what you've written.

John:
Well it might be a problem, but with all due respect, it's your problem, Jim, not mine. I'm not a reporter, and I have never claimed to be a reporter, and the magazine [The Believer] took on this project with the understanding that I have no interest in pretending to be a reporter or in producing journalism.

Jim:
Well, OK...I guess...but this still seems to violate about ten different rules of journalistic integrity.

John:
I'm not sure that matters, Jim. This is an essay, so journalistic rules don't belong here.

Jim:
I'm not sure it's going to be quite that easy.

Norton Tumblr:
Did we get your attention? http://books.wwnorton.com/books/the-lifespan-of-a-fact/

thewhitetanktop: very amusing Readings section in the February Harper’s, capped by John D’Agata and Jim Finkel’s exchange on the nature of facts in an essay (which is, at least for D’Agata, different from an “article”). I love love that D’Agata changed the number of strip clubs because “thirty-four” had a better rhythm in a sentence than “thirty-one.” (aside: is it possible that there are only 31 strip clubs in Vegas?! as a former resident I’d be stunned.) subscribers can read here. looks like I have another book to think about buying. In stores 2/27.

thewhitetanktop:

very amusing Readings section in the February Harper’s, capped by John D’Agata and Jim Finkel’s exchange on the nature of facts in an essay (which is, at least for D’Agata, different from an “article”). I love love that D’Agata changed the number of strip clubs because “thirty-four” had a better rhythm in a sentence than “thirty-one.” (aside: is it possible that there are only 31 strip clubs in Vegas?! as a former resident I’d be stunned.)

subscribers can read here. looks like I have another book to think about buying.

In stores 2/27.

Lifespan of a Coffee Drinker

condalmo:

(from the forthcoming The Lifespan of a Fact, by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal)

The text in bold is a sentence from John D’Agata’s essay “What Happens There” published in The Believer in January 2010 and later published in the book-length work About a Mountain. After the bold type, confirmation from The Believer’s fact-checker Jim Fingal. 

On Feb. 27, Norton will publish The Lifespan of a Fact which asks the question: how negotiable is a fact in nonfiction? In the book, Fingal fact-checks every sentence (sometimes even individual words) in a tug of war with D’Agata over fact, fiction, and the very definition of literary nonfiction.