We start in a university classroom. The professor is Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright)who is nicknamed “monk”. The class, he informs, is called: Southern Literature of the United States and that is why on the blackboard he has written the title of a story by Flannery O'Connor: The Artificial Negro, which in English has the infamous “N word.”
Let's remember, we live in times when an Agatha Christie classic, Ten Little Black Men, changed its name so as not to offend people's sensibilities. Its new title is: And there were none left. Brittany (Skyler Wright) raises her hand and scolds “Monk” because she is upset that the “N word” is on the board.
“Monk” tells him that as students of literature They must know that every work is a child of its time. But she insists that the word offends her, so “Monk” tells her that if he, who is black, can overcome that word, she, who is white, can too.
But she insists, the word makes her uncomfortable. And what does “Monk” do? So she takes Brittany out of the room and asks loudly if there is another student who wants to comment on her course. That causes him to be called by the school board to tell him that it is best for her to take a break. And as it turns out, “monk” it is also writer and is in negotiations with a publisher for his new book, they suggest that he take a few days in Boston, where he will go to a fair, and visit his family.
That is what in screenwriting is known as an “inciting incident”: an event or action that breaks the status quo of the main character of a story. movie either novel, setting the story in motion. And it is interesting to see how the seasoned screenwriter and now debut director Cord Jefferson (1982, Tucson) resolves said “incident…”, and in the process paints “Monk” in full body in those two scenes with which American Fiction (2023) begins , United States), a satire that has as nbnb169852 the North American publishing world, which it uses to fire its darts at the “progressive” sector that, like the mythical Oroborus, is eating itself but without any allegory. Just for that attempt to look good and demonstrate that morally and intellectually they are above whoever they put in front of them, even if they are in front of a mirror.
“Monk” says that he does not believe in race and that is why he does not write about the African-American experience. He writes literature and, according to his agent and his editors, good literature. But that goes against what is expected of a black writer, which is why he has problems both publishing and being read. After meeting the latest publishing success, Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), and seeing how the African-American experience that she proposes with her novel makes it considered pure literature, and surrounded by a series of family tragedies, “Monk” decides to write a novel full of clichés. A novel that becomes a success and now presents him with a problem: he wrote it under a pseudonym.
In novels published in the United States, a legend is often found: “This is a work of fiction, so any resemblance to reality is mere coincidence.” American Fiction takes that legend and turns it upside down: “This is a work of fiction, but any resemblance to reality is only the fault of how fucked up fucking reality is.”
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