About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

31 Rutgers L. Rec. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/rutglr31 and id is 1 raw text is: RUTGERS LAW RECORD Volume 31 Spring 2007 Number 1 TRUTHINESS: LAW, LITERATURE & THE PROBLEM WITH MEMOIRS By Jessica Lewis* I. INTRODUCTION Truthiness is the quality of adhering to concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.' Comedian Stephen Colbert introduced the term on October 17, 2005, during the inaugural episode of The Colbert Report, itself a blurring of news and satire. As the inception of truthiness coincided with the scandal surrounding James Frey's so-called 2 memoir, A Million Little Pieces, the term has previously been applied to the issues addressed -3 herein. In this Note, I explore the legal and literary impact of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, analyzing memoir through the lens of truthiness. First, I sketch a brief literary history of autobiography and memoir, from the genre's first examples through its most recent developments. Second, I consider the role of the law in literary realms, examining lawsuits involving autobiographies and/or memoirs. Third, I analyze the James Frey debacle, highlighting the circumstances that culminated in the first customer refund issued by a * J.D. Candidate, May 2007, Rutgers University School of Law - Newark. 'See http://www.americandialect.org/Words-of the-Year 2005.pdf; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness. 2 JAMES FREY, A MRLION LITTLE PIECES (Anchor Books/Random House, Inc. 2003)(hereinafter AMLP). ' See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness (noting that Oprah Winfrey mentioned truthiness in her second segment with James Frey, following the revelation that his memoir was fictionalized). 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most