Autofiction: A Genre for the Zeitgeist

Having posted a piece of writing from some time ago, the Twentieth Century Man (the Artist Formerly Known as Thoughtcruncher) began to think about the Zeitgeist in which he now found himself (being a time traveler) and its relationship to something that was, or wasn’t called autofiction.

He recalled that, as a callow but snide youth in high school, he mocked a geometry theorem by concocting a theorem of his own:

“Everything is, except when it isn’t, sometimes, maybe.”

As a callow youth, he had never specified just what everything is, but it didn’t matter, did it, because maybe it isn’t, sometimes.

What he didn’t know at the time, of course, is that his theorem would actually be completely relevant in the Zeitgeist in which he now found himself.

The stock market will bounce back, except when it won’t, sometimes, maybe.

Refugees from a horrendous war in Syria, having been encouraged to leave Turkey, but not return, by one Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will inundate the European Union nations and wreak havoc, unless they won’t, sometimes, maybe.

And the new literary genre, known as autofiction, will replace autobiography, memoir, le roman à clef, general fiction, fiction in general, and the essay, except when it doesn’t.

Sometimes.

Maybe.

“Welcome to the third decade of the twenty-first century,” thought the Twentieth Century Man.