While fiction has its necessary function in society, you approach it the appropriate cerebral distance – it is all made up, you remind yourself. But when the story is true, it tugs at you in a much different way, and this story is true, as told by Google’s Head of Special Initiatives.
The Scobleizer says Chris Saaca’s post “is among the best blog writing I’ve ever read.” Aside from the quality of writing, the story itself is pretty harrowing: a Google executive witnesses a drive-by shooting and risks his life to get the gunman nabbed.
According to Saaca, he was making a to-do list on his BlackBerry when it happened. In literature, we would note this as a proper balance of exposure and reflection – an abundance of small, pebbly, everyday details to suck the reader in and play against the boulders of truth.
This is how you create surreality.
Saaca, though, doesn’t need any help as the experience itself must have been steeped in surrealism. Imagine going about your business as normal when someone is shot, a car speeds off, and you decide to follow it for a license plate number.
Seems many of us would avoid such a caper…psychology studies suggest so, anyway, barring any honest explorations of the existence of altruism and herd mentalities.
Ahem. Sorry for the digression. Let’s take an excerpt from Saaca’s post and let him tell it:
The remaining items on my packing/to-do list thus soon read:
Socks (blue and black for Oxford)
Baseball cap
Jacket
Harpers and Atlantic mags
Take out the trash
Pull kite, harness, and lines from truck
5RLG375
In fiction, contrast is what makes something powerful. In non-fiction, it’s just plain horrifying because it’s something that could happen to you.
