Newt Gingrich is a New York Times bestselling author of alternative history novels. At the core of this kind of novel is a "what if" scenarios. What would the world be like if an important historical event had not happened as it happened? For example: What if the Japanese had developed an atomic bomb rather than the United States?
Gingrich's latest written "what if" fiction is the Civil War Trilogy. In the first novel, Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War (2003), the slave-holding states invade the free states, as actually happened in late June 1863, but in Newt's story instead of losing, as actually happened, the slave-holding states win the battle but not the war..
What would the world look like now if the slave states win the war? What if the Japanese had developed an atomic bomb rather than the United States? In the 3rd novel, Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory, the North finally prevails
In the 2012 South Carolina Presidential campaign, it seems that Gingrich added a 4th novel to the Civil War series. It was as if the author, Gingrich from neighboring Georgia, entered this new novel as its protagonist, and actually won a Civil War battle.
South Carolina Republicans are among the most receptive audience in the United States for a story in which the Civil War ends differently. Nostalgia for the world the slave holders made hangs heavily in the Gothic atmosphere of downtown Charleston, from the windswept harbor to the splendid array of antebellum, estate-sized houses along cobblestone streets, with lush gardens set behind wrought iron gates.
Not far up Montague Avenue at the North Charleston Coliseum, on Thursday night's Southern Republican Debate, Newt treated an audience to pivotal chapters of his 4th novel. At the previous debate he had gotten a standing ovation for attacking African-American journalist Juan Williams.
At this debate he got two standing ovations for attacking CNN's John King and the national press, which King represented. Newt said: "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama." (Subtext: protecting this African American as you did in the Civil War). In novel writing the subtext is often more powerful than the text.
I have been a long-time, creative writing professor at Rutgers University. I have helped scores of students write alternative history fiction, "about a created world apart," my lecture notes say, " a world of possibilities wished for or dreaded by your readers." It was easy for a writing professor to see that on stage at Thursday night's debate Newt was thinking like a novelist.
When you write fiction you are concerned with two kinds of truth. The truth of correspondence means that what you write or say as a character in a novel must correspond to the world as it really is. On the other hand, the truth of coherence means that whatever you write or say needs only cohere to the other elements of your story.
Every fiction writer knows that the truth of coherence is the more powerful of the two. A good storyteller can make it "true" that an elephant can fly if the storyteller can make readers see Dumbo's ears flapping and make that cohere with a richly detailed landscape sailing along underneath. It also helps if your audience badly wants to see the elephant fly," my lecture notes say.
"Fiction is governed by its own facts. Select some facts and make them cohere. Do not worry about how they correspond with reality. It is best that the facts be taken from reality -flapping wings, detailed landscape, but "the measure of success of a work of fiction is how well or poorly the author has unified the story and controlled its impact," writes John Gardner in The Art of Fiction, one of the text books I regularly assigned.
Rick Santorum was the only one of the other debater who tried to intrude into the fictional world Newt was creating. "You can't run rings around the fact, Newt," Santorum said midway through the debate.
I said: "Yes, he can, Rick, in fact he must, if he wishes to create a successful story." During the debate Santorum tried several times to intrude. When Gingrich said he was a big idea person. Santorum responded. "Grandiosity has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich. He -- he handles it very, very well."
I thought: "and that's why he's winning the debate. He's creating a grandiose world and sharing it with his audience. "If you want to write a big novel select big ideas. . .." my notes say. Santorum continued: "I will give Newt Gingrich his due on grandiose ideas and grandiose projects. I will not give him his -- his -- his -- his due on executing those projects,"
"Rick, he doesn't have to execute. This is a novel. It only needs to exist in Gingrich's head in enough detail to conjure it up in the heads his audience. They will enjoy it even if it doesn't exist. If enough of them enjoy it they will make it exist."
A good creator of fiction can make the world with which the truth is supposed to correspond disappear for himself and for readers (or listeners to a debate) if the creator can bring the audience into a fictional universe that contains "truths" that are missing from the audience's real world.
If you want to write a commercially successful novel you can make a list of words to use in paragraphs about your protagonists and a list to use in paragraphs about villains. This novel writing technique is essentially what is explained in the 1996 GOPAC training memo on how to speak like Newt.
In the memo there are 60 words to use in conjunction with protagonists (Republicans). Included are words like commitment, common sense, courage, family, freedom, hard work. On the GOPAC list of words to use with villains (Democrats) are such words as abuse, betray, bizarre, bosses, bureaucracy, cheat, and corrupt. Gingrich used both lists to great effect in his South Carolina debates.
And he certainly did not forget the power of symbolism in the writing process. He kept calling Romney a Massachusetts governor (a Yankee). And Romney fell into the trap and kept repeating the word Massachusetts.
In the actual Civil War the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first formal unit of the Union army composed entirely of African American men, saw first battlefield action against Confederate troops on James Island, South Carolina. As many South Carolina school children are taught, the 54th Massachusetts gained infamy by spearheading the assault on Fort Wagner which guarded the windswept harbor of Charleston.
Is this a meaningless fact? Ask a good fiction writer. It's a motif. A motif is a recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work. Massachusetts! Massachusetts! Massachusetts! Newt used it well!
George Davis is professor emeritus at Rutgers University and the creator of the 5-book, interactive, world-sourced, digital series, Barack Obama, America and the World.
