@article{ddl 233, author = {Toby Bennett}, title = {From Postfiction to Protofiction: Conspiracy Theory, Social Networks, and Confabulation}, volume = {1}, year = {2011}, url = {https://dandelionjournal.org/article/id/233/}, issue = {1}, doi = {10.16995/ddl.233}, abstract = {The pursuit and critique of truth has often been considered a rather lofty affair, traditionally confined to religious, philosophical and scientific circles. If, as Gill Partington suggests in the first issue of Dandelion, trashy Christian apocalyptic thrillers exemplify a ‘postfictional’ mode of engagement with truth that the current climate of networked media and user interactivity precipitates, then we may ask how it fits in with a wider, ‘protofictional’ approach to making sense of the world that has surfaced alongside the development of such a climate. Conspiracy theory, computer games, online ‘social networking’ and the ‘postfictional’ novel, as well as recent neuroscientific research, all point towards a reality that is constructed and interpreted as fiction, yet experienced just as (or even more) authentically than ‘real life’. Might popular and fringe developments like these demonstrate a significant human response to the baffling techno-bureaucratic excesses of modernity? The pursuit and critique of truth has often been considered a rather lofty affair, traditionally confined to religious, philosophical, and scientific circles. If, as Gill Partington suggests in the first issue of Dandelion , trashy Christian apocalyptic thrillers exemplify a ‘postfictional’ mode of engagement with truth which the current climate of networked media and user interactivity precipitates, then we may ask how it fits in with a wider, ‘protofictional’ approach to making sense of the world that has surfaced alongside the development of such a climate. Conspiracy theory, computer games, online ‘social networking’, and the ‘postfictional’ novel, as well as recent neuroscientific research, all point towards a reality that is constructed and interpreted as fiction, yet experienced just as (or even more) authentically than ‘real life’. Might popular and fringe developments like these demonstrate a significant human response to the baffling techno-bureaucratic excesses of modernity?}, month = {1}, issn = {2048-1322}, publisher={Birkbeck, University of London}, journal = {Dandelion: Postgraduate Arts Journal and Research Network} }