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Truthiness is a quality characterizing a "truth"
that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or
because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic,
intellectual examination, or facts. (Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness)
Other meanings of the word date as far back as 1824.
With
respect to books, and media articles, fiction need only be truthy
while memoire, biography, study, research report, etc indicate that
one may take any and all the factual content as known to be true
– either
as historical occurrences or as experimental facts or their
implications. Content produced, overtly or covertly, with hortative
intent (advertisements, sermons, political tracts and the like), add
another level of complexity.
(A
memoire straddles the line a bit in the sense that it may include
material which the author merely honestly remembers
as
being an historical occurrence.)
A book that is
truthy but substantially untrue does not inform its
readers: it is crafted by the author to confirm the readers'
prejudices. A non-fiction book that has inaccuracies not
quickly and credibly addressed (with errata sheets, revised editions,
...) is a cipher.
Of the many concrete instances of truthiness versus truth, see more on these:
"The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter (actually Asa Carter).
"Le soldat oublié" by Guy Sajer --- OR in English
"Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sager (actually Guy Mouminoux)
“Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefèvre (“many if not most people”(from the preface) assume this is a pseudonym for the famous securities trader Jesse Livermore)
More writing in the abstract on truthiness versus truth:
If you're still up for more, you might browse the directory containing this page and click some other material on truthiness.
This page assembled by: Frederick N. Chase