Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality

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In a political moment when social panics over literature are at their peak, Dangerous Fictions is a mind-expanding treatise on the nature of fictional stories as cultural battlegrounds for power. In a political moment when social panics over literature are at their peak, Dangerous Fictions is a mind-expanding treatise on the nature of fictional stories as cultural battlegrounds for power. Fictional stories have long held an uncanny power over hearts and minds, especially those of young people. In Dangerous Fictions, Lyta Gold traces arguments both historical and contemporary that have labeled fiction as dark, immoral, frightening, or poisonous. Within each she asks- How "dangerous" is fiction, really And what about it provokes waves of moral panic and even censorship Gold argues that any panic about art is largely a disguised panic about power. There have been versions of these same fights over fiction for centuries. By exposing fiction as a social danger and a battleground of immediate public concern, we can see what each side really wants-the right to shape the future of a world deeply in flux and a distraction from more pressing material concerns about money, access, and the hard work of politics. From novels about people driven insane by reading novels to "copaganda" TV shows that influence how viewers regard the police, Gold uses her signature wit, research, and fearless commentary to point readers toward a more substantial question- Fiction may be dangerous to us, but aren't we also dangerous to it

Reviews

Honorable Mention for the Pop Culture Association Awards

"Lyta Gold faces these moral panics around fiction head on . . . A concise overview of the history of moral panics in the U.S." Michelle Petty, BUST

"A soundly reasoned dive into how fictional representations are used and interpreted." Eleanor J. Bader, New Pages

"Reality has been severely altered in the past few yearswith fiction as a balm or a causebut Golds analysis might be a way through." Sam Franzini, Our Culture Mag

"With wit and moral clarity, Gold argues that books are wonderful but they are actually not that powerful: they dont have the power to make us bad, and they also dont have the power to make us good or empathetic . . . The overall message is exactly what I needed right now." Maris Kreizman, The Maris Review

"Dangerous Fictions is a rich text, well-researched and full of insights . . . The challenge, in attempting to communicate how compelling this book is, looms large." Gwen Papp, The Rumpus

"Throughout, Gold blends rigorous scholarship with internet-literate humor, and in the end, she flips the script on fictions moral critics, claiming the allegedly harmful effects of fiction are the fault of bad readers, not of bad writing, since readers cant be stopped from seeing what they want to see. This much-needed beacon guides readers through the morass of present-day cultural discourse." Publishers Weekly

"An incisive book debut with a thoughtful, often witty, examination of the causes and consequences of banning novels . . . A savvy contribution to current debates." Kirkus Reviews

Fiction incites and excites; is both championed and reviled as a force for ideology or empty calories for our lowest social common denominator. But what's really going on Effortlessly witty, Lyta Golds Dangerous Fictions rejects dead-ended questions of utility and examines from a hundred angles what we hear, what we read, what we watch, and why. Everything from video games or chick lit to explicit political imagination can be a battlegroundGold shows us that careful attention can reveal the competing social and structural forces which shape the way we live, breathe, and dream in Western culture." Timothy Faust, author of Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next

Author Bio

Lyta Gold is a critic, essayist, and fiction writer living in Queens. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Protean, the New York Review of Architecture, and Current Affairs.