Living by Fiction by Annie Dillard
Art Is Interpretation
Living by Fiction is written for--and dedicated to--people who love
literature. Dealing with writers such as Nabokov, Barth, Coover, Pynchon,
Borges, García Márquez, Beckett, and Calvino, Annie Dillard shows why
fiction matters and how it can reveal more of the modern world and
modern thinking than all the academic sciences combined. Like Joyce
Carys Art and Reality, this is a book by a writer on the issues raised by the
art of literature. Readers of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Holy the Firm will
recognize Dillards vivid writing, her humor, and the lively way in which she
tackles the urgent questions of meaning in experience itself.
Personal Review: Living by Fiction by Annie Dillard
"Living By Fiction" is in essence a treatise by Annie Dillard that attempts to
interpret art, and thereby includes fiction as art, and as an interpretation.
The book is well constructed and the sentences are beautifully crafted.
The treatise starts by discussing in vast detail, the styles and forms of

writing. Then it concentrates on "modernistic" fiction. This type of fiction
takes numerous and varied forms.
Annie distinguishes between styles of writing. She does this very much by
example. She uses the work of many, many authors as her examples and
illustrations of the different manners in which a writer can craft a work.
Specifically, she describes works of fiction. After detailing these different
styles and their characteristics, she then turns to the purpose of fiction as a
subcategory of art.
She posits that art is an interpretation. It is the artist's perspective on the
relationship between something in the universe and a representation of
that vision of the item. Her analysis inevitably leads her to state that art
and religion are the modes by which people explain and interpret the
unexplainable. Art produces an interpretation of a vision that is meant for
others to see.
The interpretation, interestingly enough, is in fact non-existent without the
reader and the critic to observe. While opining that fiction needs readers
and critics to be interpreted, the interpretation is the very purpose of the
creation. Without the reader and the critic, the work does not really exist.
It exists in form, but not in value. The work is a creation that only carries a
message if someone reads it; and more so if someone such as a critic
helps us to interpret it.
In a fascinating "diatribe" to use her designation, she discusses the
complexity of interpretation. In addition, she discusses a concept that art
is the ordering of disordered and decaying existence. Basing her
discussion of this concept on Newton's Second Law of Thermodynamics,
which states that all things become randomly distributed, unless acted
upon by some external force; Annie argues that fiction and art in general
are an ordering of this theory of disorder or entropy. She in fact suggests
that perhaps art, including fiction, is the purpose of man. And that this
purpose is for man to make order of the universe around him. Does art
create meaning or does it expose it? In essence Annie says the distinction
does not really matter. What matters is that it is a depiction; which is open
to anyone who wishes to interpret it. Without an observer, it carries no real
meaning. It is just an object. Only through its interpretation does it gain
meaning. Thus, art and fiction necessitate interpreters, and it is through
these interpreters, the reader, that it gains meaning and substance.
While complex in her contentions, she is also sublime. The treatise truly is
a thing of beauty, but that is not sufficient to Annie. Nor is it really
sufficient to a reader or a critic. What is sufficient and valuable is that the
art object presents the reader with an interpretation. And whether the
reader's interpretation is in accordance with the artist's is really of no
account. Its value is in its illustration of a message. That message is open
to all to interpret as they see it, and as it relates to life and existence. This

book is recommended to all readers of complex fiction. It is truly a
picturesque look at the art of writing and also the purpose thereof.
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