Blog #8

• I believe that a book has to be mostly true in order to be considered non-fiction, because non-fiction means that the writing is based around facts, or real events. If a lot of the book is not true, then it is a fiction story, because the author would have just made it up. If a book is non-fiction, it can't be about something that never actually happened, because the author would be lying. The author should say that it's nonfiction if the subject of the story really happened, and fiction if they are telling a fabricated story. But in some cases, they may need to change certain aspects of the story, such as some of the characters' names, in order to protect the safety of the people they know. 
• I think that in some cases, half-truths could be okay if it's a good story, but the storyteller shouldn't say that it's all true, because it could make fans of the book feel cheated if they find out that it really isn't all true. I think that the problem with James Frey's book was that he claimed that it was all fact, but it actually wasn't. It made some of the fans of the book angry when they found it wasn't all true. For example, Oprah Winfrey took the book off of her book club list when she found this out. I believe that the authors should let people know what is true and what isn't, if they want to keep their audience.
• I believe that we do need to label stories as fiction and nonfiction, because it's important to know what has happened in real life, and what hasn't.