If we crave truth unmediated by art we are chasing a phantom. We need the commentator’s craft, even to make sense of the news. We need historians, not to collect facts, but to help us pick a path through the facts, to meaning. We need fiction to remind us that the unknown and unknowable is real, and exerts its force. Some writers and adaptors disclaim responsibility. They say the public wants escapism – so let’s give them what they want. They cheat their audience as politicians cheat when they make uncosted pledges: the bill comes later, when we lose a grip on our own story, and fall into individual distress and political incoherence.
Hilary Mantel, in Remarkable Minds: A Celebration of the Reith Lectures (BBC Radio 4)
Chasing A Phantom
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