Creative non-fiction writings are one of the most confusing genres that I can think of. Not only is what they are about true, but they tend to be observational and reflective, like a still life painting put into words. Metaphor is the closest that the author can get to lying to their reader without having their story be classified as fiction, but then again the closest that the reader can get to disproving the genre of the work is through fact checking. But only a few people know whether or not such seemingly small events happen, nor can they do any form of fact checking because, usually, the author's account of the event in the work is the only reference that exists! All in all, creative non-fiction is such a ubiquitous genre that I even find myself struggling with it.
Therefore, when it came to choosing a piece that I would reflect upon for this, it was difficult for me to select one that I understood on more than the surface level. The piece that I settled on was "Three Voices" by Bhanu Kappil. In this work, the author depicts what seems to be a typical home setting with the narrator, most likely being herself, relaxing and attempting to enjoy her day, however she "cannot shake the lump of coal out of [her] body", which alludes to her having some large foreign object disturbing her greatly.
The part that confuses me the most is the end of the first part, part I. In this work, sections are split up by Roman numerals. The first section is more of a descriptive part, the second has a bit more motion and narration, while the third part is more reflective and introspective. What confuses me about the first parts ending is the usage of the statement about Kappil not being a rational human being, but rather she's writing "about the substances of an animal and female life; magic, pain, the cracked nails of four feet, and the days like this one" and where she states that "there is something hard between my lungs. It is the size of a blood orange from northern California." It's not the metaphor that confuses me, nor is it the specific usage of a blood orange from northern California, but rather that there is a large lump in between her lungs, which I feel is talking about her heart. I just don't understand why she would compare it to a blood orange and not explicitly state it's her heart. I understand that she can describe it however she wants to, as it the nature of creative writing, but if this is truly non-fiction, how can such a false description be used?
I feel as if this non-fiction unit is going to give me a large amount of trouble, and it's not because of the artistic elements used or anything like that, but rather that it's such a weird genre, I don't know how to classify it. Did those events even happen? Does it even matter?
Now I'm just hurting my head.
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