We were delighted to welcome Dr Gill Partington (Birkbeck, University of London) to speak as part of our Memories of Fiction seminar series in March this year. Gill is a member of Birkbeck’s Material Texts Network and has co-convened various network symposia, including most recently Perversions of Paper (2014).We’re very happy to say that Gill’s paper, ‘Taking it Literally: Mae Brussell and the Misreading of Fiction’ is now available to listen to here in full.
“On 16th March 1979 the radio talk show host Mae Brussell recounted reading a book whose contents provoked a violent, visceral reaction, making her nauseous and faint. The book in question was Alternative 3, an exposé of a sinister global plot at the highest levels. It was also, however, a spoof: a work of fiction, whose contents she misrecognised and quoted to her listeners as factual information. This talk examines her retrospective accounts of reading, concentrating on how her interpretations of Alternative 3 and other texts negotiate a complex and shifting boundary between fiction and non-fiction.”
* Please note that the recording level is low in places so it is advised to turn your speakers up to full volume.
Memories of Fiction: An Oral History 