Exploring literary journalism and the truth in wine

Abstract

– Writers of narrative literary journalism are not often aware of the reasons why they write the way they do, and they usually leave critical theory outside the door of their writing space. In this essay, a writer and scholar examines critical reasons why he made choices he did as author of the award-winning book Seasons of a Finger Lakes Winery. The essay has two parts. The first part explores how narrative literary journalism attempts to narrow the distance between the subjectivities of author, reader and protagonists when compared to more conventional models of “objective” journalism. The result is hopefully a heightened degree of psychological transport on the part of the reader because of an increased cognitive response to the perception that the account is about phenomenal actuality, and the influence of the mirror neuron in mimicking that actuality. The second part exams narrative efforts in Seasons of a Finger Lakes Winery to reveal the mystique behind wine, including its science, art, and what the author describes as mystification resulting from the metaphorical “bullshit” created by the wine snob.