This week, let’s look at Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut American Fiction, which came out on December 15, 2023 and is based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett.
Can I tell you what this film is about in one sentence? So glad you asked!
American Fiction in One Sentence
A literary author must decide whether to perform the crude Black stereotypes that will make him an acclaimed bestseller and finance his mother’s dementia care.
How to Make the Stakes High Enough for Us to Care
Whether you’ve seen or are planning to see this movie or not, we can learn a lot about the importance of high-enough stakes in defining the overall emotional landscape of a story just by unpacking the sentence above.
What would the sentence look like if we removed the mother’s expensive dementia care?
“A literary author must decide whether to perform the crude Black stereotypes that will make him an acclaimed bestseller.”
On the face of it, this seems fine, and arguably compelling enough on its own. American Fiction is clearly a satire of race in the publishing industry, and that’s exactly what this version of the sentence promises.
We can guess that we’ll watch a literary author write high-quality books he believes in, struggle and fail to get recognition and sales in his industry, and decide how far he’s willing to go to succeed in his chosen profession.
We can expect biting insights into an industry where Black authors can only succeed if they are performing crude Black stereotypes. In this case, in the depths of frustration, the protagonist writes a book filled with them, which he expects everyone to quickly recognize as a satire or send-up.
Notice that two different types of success are on the line.
One is bestseller status, that the reading public is showing up in droves to buy this guy’s book and he’s making more money from it than he did with any of his other books.
The other is acclaim, that supposedly respectable awards committees are anointing the same book high literature, the best of the year. Which, again, did not happen with any of his more serious books.
The first is eye roll-y, but the second adds a special extra sting. Especially for an author who thought everyone would recognize his parody as a joke immediately.
So what effect does it have that the creators also chose to include his mother’s dementia care as part of the emotional landscape of this story?
Without it, our literary author’s financial needs are mostly taken care of. He has a job at a university. He’s free to keep toiling in relative obscurity and producing work he is at least proud of, while judging other Black authors who sell out by pandering to the tastes of white audiences.
Which is exactly how we find him at the beginning of the story. As with real human beings, characters in stories rarely change unless it hurts too much to stay the same.
But his mother is also okay living independently, under the care of a beloved longtime housekeeper and her other children, at the beginning of the story. Her condition deteriorates dramatically, and other elements of her support system get knocked out, ratcheting up the tension as the story progresses.
Including this storyline gives the creators a chance to fully round out the main character. We see who he is as son to a mother in need, brother to a newly out gay Black man, partner to an intelligent Black woman who fails to recognize his book as parody, and employer to the beloved longtime housekeeper. We can see his work as an author as comparable to any other line of work — if it’s not paying enough to provide for his family, what will? And what happens if it doesn’t?
Whether or not audiences care about the in’s and out’s of the book industry or literary success, this more deeply human and universal set of stakes gives everyone a way to emotionally engage with the story. Without losing any of the publishing-specific tea promised by the earlier set of stakes.
A takeaway for story creators: Could adding a second set of stakes to your main character’s journey give your story even more emotional urgency and depth?
A Question for You
Based on how you’re feeling today, if you had to pick just one:
💰 bestseller status, popularity, high earnings
🏆 literary acclaim, the respect of your industry, prestigious awards
💞 providing for your family or any other loved ones who need you financially
Which would most entice you to do something you otherwise find distasteful?
My answer is below. I hope you’ll leave yours in the comments!