Smith+JG

Kathy Smith's "John McPhee Balances the Act" Joanne Goodall

Kathy Smith explores one of the key definitions, or characteristic, of literary journalism in John McPhee's works. This characteristic is the balance between telling the facts, which is the role of a journalist, and the observation and/or treatment of those facts. John McPhee's work is full of interesting facts. Some of his pieces, like those covering geology or sports, are so bogged down with facts that some people find it difficult to read or just "silly". Why do people find this treatment of the facts "silly"? Most people are used to reading facts in a journalistic way in newspapers or on television. Reporters in these fields can only tell so much of a story so many facts that would seem "frivilous" are cut out. However, McPhee has the opportunity to include all of the facts as he continues to write for the New Yorker, actually it looks like it is encouraged for him to do so but in an actual newsroom it would be frowned upon unless it's GENIUS work.

Smith also explores another characteristic of literary journalism through McPhee's work and that it truth of the facts. When we read a newspaper we assume that everything in it is 100 percent true and accurate. However, with McPhee's works he leaves a lot of things to his own assumption, leaving objectivity lingering in the background for the reader to interpret. Because McPhee uses himself as the observer in his pieces and leaves a lot of his facts to the reader to interpret, does that make his pieces "less true" than others? We have "dubbed" narrative sentence structuring as a form for nonfiction writing, however, when looking at McPhee's works, Smith explains that he breaks the contract, or the reader-writer views, on the defintions between journalism, or written fact, and nonfiction, or the narrative story.

Smith writes, "The conventions of journalistic writing impose boundaries meant to contain and maintain objectivity and to limit rhetorical and narrative choices. When one calls oneself a journalist, therefore, one takes up a judicial position in regard to differentiating between fact and fiction. As a writer in the more general sense, however, and as a manipulator of the material he fashions into story, McPhee constantly crosses and tests these boundaries." (page 263)

Smith uses a small paragraph from William Howarth's book on McPhee to help explain McPhee's ways of becoming "transparent" in social settings of his stories. He becomes more like a bug on the wall, observing and absorbing everything around him. Howarth writes, "A good reporter, he moves through crowds easily, absorbing names, details, snatches of talk. He inspires confidence, since people rarely find someone who listens that carefully to them. ...He cultivates a certain transparency in social relations, a habit derived from practicing his craft. To see and hear clearly, he keeps his eyes open and mouth shut." (page 263)

You can definitely see this "transparency act" in most of his writing. I'll use the example of "Levels of the Game" where McPhee describes, in very fine detail, what the game of tennis is like. He doesn't play himself, he is just eager to capture every sense, smell, feeling, look, attitudes, etc. of tennis that he can to make it sound believable and real to his readers.

Smith, in this article, explores McPhee's story "A Sense of Where You Are". She explains that McPhee was able to set Bradley, a basketball player, from the rest of his team because he had a sense of "superiority" due to his constant practicing the "craft". As well, she explains that "place" is important in McPhee's writing and having a sense of exactly where the character, or himself, was at the time of his writing, made the story more believable. For example, instead of interviewing Bradley in the lockeroom after a game which most newsreporters do, McPhee stands side by side with him on the basketball court, watching Bradley practice. McPhee is able to capture and tell a more "real" story about people's lives because he subjects himself to the story and goes out his elements to make it sound believable, just as I had mentioned above.