Week Seven Prompt Response

Are hoax memoirs still worth reading? Barnes and Noble seems to think they are, but I doubt that any store would say a title they carried wasn't worth it. A better question might be “what is the value of hoax memoirs?”, to which this article would probably say somewhere between $8.99 and $16.32. I'd say that these books aren't memoirs, and the second this is exposed these books lose all value. Readers can't get the same benefits that they would from nonfiction, and the books often translate badly into fiction. If a reader is looking for sensationalism, they can find bigger scandals in books intended as fiction. If they are looking for insights into history, social issues, or the human condition, they're better off with real nonfiction. 

A bigger problem with false memoirs (and what especially bothered me about this article) is that they tend to gravitate towards serious societal issues and end up negatively impacting the conversation. The books B&N listed covered (respectively) sexual abuse, addiction, prisoner abuse, addiction (again), Nazis, and racism. There is no way to lie about these topics in a way that creates progress on any of these issues. Stories like Go Ask Alice or A Million Little Pieces end up sensationalizing and/or contributing to stigmas surrounding addiction. Ones like The Awful Disclosures, Papillon, or Odd Man Out that lie about (or exaggerate) larger social issues like sexual abuse, prisoner abuse, or racism trivializes factual accounts by contributing to the fallacy that if one person is exaggerating, anyone/everyone could be. Furthermore, these appropriated narratives take focus and resources away from actual victims.

The worst part of this article, though, was the review of Helen Dale’s The Hand that Signed the Paper. This book completely fabricates a tale in which Nazis are “liberators” and the main characters happily join Nazi ranks. B&N stated explicitly that this book is completely false, and went on to say that many view this book as antisemitic (if the premise wasn’t enough of a sign). This book has no historical or factual basis and promotes the aggressors of one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity in modern history- what could possibly be the value of this book? I can’t fathom a reason why anyone would fabricate a sympathetic portrayal of Nazis (aside from propaganda), and I certainly cannot fathom how this book could have any literary or societal value.

Barnes and Noble argues that The Hand that Signed the Paper’s merits are that “if you take the book to be a complete work of fiction, it’s still a powerful historical story with some basis in reality, and a thought-provoking and often emotionally powerful read.” This personally feels like a reach, and it’s certainly filled with enough vague buzzwords to tell the reader nothing about the book’s content. This review is about as empty and purposeless as false memoirs themselves, and the looming $14.99 doesn’t make it more convincing. Furthermore, the article’s eagerness to promote a sympathetic portrayal of Nazis is a bad look for the company.  

Since so much of the hype around false memoirs is the hoax itself, we’d all be better off if we just read the exposé and left it at that.

Article in question: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/5-hoax-memoirs-still-worth-reading/