Storytelling

In a metafiction piece, truth is blended with fiction to allow the audience to experience the telling of the writer's life, as though it were a story. In both Forrest Gump and several of Tim O'Brian's works on Vietnam, the use of blending the fallacy with reality. In Forrest Gump, his story is being told by his eyes, his innocent, forever hopeful eyes. This gives a spin to what might have really happened. For example, Forrest knew that Jenny had always wanted to be a singer. When he saw her at the gentleman's club, he viewed this as her dream come true. "Her dream had come true. She was a folk singer" (Forrest Gump). Clearly it had not, but in the story-teller's eyes, it had. This blends what had really happened, because of a troubled childhood, Jenny was suffering living an equally troubling adulthood; with what Forrest assumed had happened. As one reviewer of the film would say, "The film isn't meant to be taken literally, it's from Forrest's point of view. It's his version of reality" (IMDB reviewer).

In Tim O'Brian's lecture, he discusses his writing in a metafiction style. He states how if he told word for word what really happened, the effect would not be understood. "As a fiction writer, I do not just write about the world we live in, but I also write about the world we ought to live in, and could, which is a world of imagination" (O'Brian). By blending the two genres, in any piece, the storytelling is enhanced.