R J Hembree - Writers' Village University

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TRONCOSO: The Nature of Truth began with a series of ideas in my head, about
exploring moral culpability, and the obsession with seeking justice, and the
academic world, where I had experienced crazy, determined, intelligent people
who pursued their sense of 'truth' with a vehemence which I always imagined
could easily turn violent. I was also exploring the question of how someone
categorizes a person, objectifies them over time, to do harm to them, to justify
doing harm to them.
In my mind was also Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. I believed
Dostoyevsky did not go far enough with his story. Raskolnikov's redemption
through Christianity, at the end of the novel, I thought was somewhat of a copout.
And Raskolnikov's murder for the sake of money also did not go far enough.
I wanted to explore murder for the sake of truth, for the sake of murder. I
wanted to see someone lose himself in the pursuit of truth, in righting a wrong,
such that he (Helmut Sanchez) loses who he is. I also believed it was possible to
create a character and situation in which the murderer not only gets away with
it, but does not recant his ideas, does not say what he did was 'wrong'. The
point is that he gets away with it, and the point is that he, by the end of the
novel, is on his way to getting over the crime he has committed. Helmut is in a
way who I was, as a crazy, determined graduated student pursuing truth pellmell,
to wherever this pursuit took me. Helmut is also someone who believes
when you find out the truth you should do something about it. There is no
Socratic separation ("Knowledge is not sufficient for Virture.") of knowing the
right thing in your head, but not doing it. For Helmut, if you know it in your
head, and you don't do anything about it, then perhaps you don't really know
the truth. It's the depth of his righteousness.
HEMBREE: The Nature of Truth paints a dark picture of Yale: cutthroat politics,
abuses of power, sexual manipulation of students; what kind of reactions did
you get from colleagues? Did any see themselves as models for your characters?
Did you fear for your job?
TRONCOSO: I got a surprisingly positive reaction from my Yale colleagues. They
have been at Yale, and understand how it is. And I also know they understand
that Helmut accepts much of what is Yale, this obsessive pursuit of the truth, as
the right thing to do. So the novel is a comment on people like Helmut as much
as it is a comment on Yale itself.
I didn't use any Yale professor as a model for the characters in The Nature of
Truth. It's interesting that you mention that, but so many wanted to be models,
wanted to believe they were Werner Hopfgartner, in a way. There is nothing like
someone writing about you, giving you that importance, even as an evil fictional
character.
Another interesting point is that reviewers often assumed I had used Paul de
Man, I think a Comp-Lit professor at Yale, who had been discovered to have Nazi