That curious supplement called reality

Another thought occasioned by "Big Brother": that curious supplement called 'reality'. ie, the audience of Big Brother knows it's choreographed, manipulated, artificial etc, and yet the fact that it is 'real' continues to be the crucial 'ingredient'. If the same 'housemates' sitting on the sofa yawning and exchanging small talk were part of a scripted soap opera, you'd of course think it utterly boring and not worthy of a minute's time. But the identical scene with identical dialogue becomes engrossing soley due to the knowledge that it is 'real' - it''s that little supplement that holds the attention in place, that transfigures the actionless, badly written TV drama into something deserving of your fascination.

Now, at the risk of a making a rather ridiculous leap, this 'supplement' of reality figures also, but in a different way, in the Wilkomirski affair. Binjamin Wilkomirski's Fragments was published as the memoir of a Jewish Holocaust survivor. It was praised as profoundly moving, a literary masterpiece, 'visceral power' and haunting prose that would grave itself in your memory and so on. The author turned out to be an imposter, a fraud. His 'memories' were fictions. With considerable embarassment the book was withdrawn, the reviewers who had praised it were made to look foolish, as if mistaken not just about its status as memoir but about its literary worth.. What then had happened to the haunting prose, the painfully moving descriptions? Had these simply disappeared down the plughole along with its reality? Seemingly yes. Although technically independent of autobiographical veracity, these literary qualities had nonetheless t0 be underwritten by it. Like the shem in the Golem's mouth, once removed, the thing loses life and animation.