This was awesome. Really good work, Mr. Cooke.

Yeah, no joke. Great rebuttal. Slog should hire your ass.

Mr Cooke's writing makes me want to cut off my dick and eat it raw. Not really, but his writing does suck -- the " kundera / pontificate paragraph belongs in garbage disposal. didn't bother with the rest.... #1 you suck too, get a job with 60 Minutes, or find some excuse to leave Seattle

Well done. I don't know anything about Shields, or whether or not you got his point. However, I will agree with your argument that narrative fiction has great value.

I'm a voracious reader. 90%+ of non-fiction I've read has bored me to death. Fiction, regardless of faults, is just more interesting to read, generally. And a well written work of fiction can make its point just as well, or better, than non-fiction.

Non-fiction is hampered in the same way a documentary film is. You know the subject and the author's viewpoint before you start. If you are predisposed to agree, you'll read it; if you are predisposed to disagree, you probably won't. The author is preaching to the converted, and has little opportunity to reach a broader audience.

Fiction can bring in a reader who is interested in the story, the plot, the characters, or the writing style. The author then has an opportunity to deliver their message, woven into the story, without beating the reader over the head with it.

Care to make arguments based on specific points of Cooke's article, @3, or are you caught in a feedback loop of self-aggrandizing (severed) autofellatio?

ha ha! @5 ftw!! Nicely written, Cooke.

Dang... deep stuff, but all I can handle today are reviews of hot dogs or boobies.

I think Matthew got too excited about Jen's Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator, or at least the tables you can download.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…