memoir/autobiography/myth
Apr. 28th, 2008 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fictionalReading mistful's autobiography book review post, I was thinking about how we take these accusations of falsehood way more seriously than we used to. I got into an argument with my office-mates at the College Which Must Not Be Named about this very subject, when I suggested that the whole trope of AUTHENTIC IT REALLY HAPPENED JUST THAT WAY memoir was a virtual impossibility, and at that, an undesirable result. Good story, well researched, well written? Who cares if it happened to you, your next door neighbor, or some dude the next interdimensional bypass over? I really don't get it. It's like those folks who watch "reality"-t.v. and then are like, shock, horror: "OMG it was staged?! You mean, it's not, you know...true?" Um. yeah. Of course it's staged, and p.s. who cares??
If it didn't happen that way, well...it should have. And I can respect that.
It's the truth-shoppers I just don't understand. The American Dream for the past few years has been based on these ridiculous, "we were lied to" disclaimers. Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Fools and Liars Edition. We expect our govt. to tell us the truth? Please. [for the record, what I object to in that whole episode was not that "we were lied to" but that a) we were lied to so poorly! and b) that now other politicians were either too stupid to see that they were being lied to, or c) are now lying poorly about being convinced by other politicians' crappy lies. What the hell. Dear Guys-In-Charge-Of-Stuff: Spin a better, more interesting story, people. No love, Kali. Ahem. anyway.]
So I was thinking about all of that, and also remembering that I had heard of C.S. Forrester long before I ever sailed the seas with Captain Hornblower. Why? Kid-lit ppl in my audience may remember the episode that Roald Dahl recounts in "My Lucky Break" in which he tells a story about his plane crashing in Libya to a Mr. Forrester who has been sent to interview him for the Saturday Evening Post. Forrester was so impressed by the tale which he had been meant to turn into a "real" story (assuming that this random soldier wouldn't be able to tell a story in a writerly fashion) that he insisted on its publication verbatim. In googling the episode, I turned up THE REAL STORY.
But who cares? "A Piece of Cake" is a great tale; and Forrester obviously really liked "Shot Down In Libya."
And Roald Dahl was a great writer, and I loved him. Should we revoke his writing license? No more "Danny the Champion of the World" because he told a story that was more good than true?
If it didn't happen that way...it should have.
mistful's autobiography book review post, I was thinking about how we take these accusations of falsehood way more seriously than we used to. I got into an argument with my office-mates at the College Which Must Not Be Named about this very subject, when I suggested that the whole trope of AUTHENTIC IT REALLY HAPPENED JUST THAT WAY memoir was a virtual impossibility, and at that, an undesirable result. Good story, well researched, well written? Who cares if it happened to you, your next door neighbor, or some dude the next interdimensional bypass over? I really don't get it. It's like those folks who watch "reality"-t.v. and then are like, shock, horror: "OMG it was staged?! You mean, it's not, you know...true?" Um. yeah. Of course it's staged, and p.s. who cares?? If it didn't happen that way, well...it should have. And I can respect that.
It's the truth-shoppers I just don't understand. The American Dream for the past few years has been based on these ridiculous, "we were lied to" disclaimers. Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Fools and Liars Edition. We expect our govt. to tell us the truth? Please. [for the record, what I object to in that whole episode was not that "we were lied to" but that a) we were lied to so poorly! and b) that now other politicians were either too stupid to see that they were being lied to, or c) are now lying poorly about being convinced by other politicians' crappy lies. What the hell. Dear Guys-In-Charge-Of-Stuff: Spin a better, more interesting story, people. No love, Kali. Ahem. anyway.]
So I was thinking about all of that, and also remembering that I had heard of C.S. Forrester long before I ever sailed the seas with Captain Hornblower. Why? Kid-lit ppl in my audience may remember the episode that Roald Dahl recounts in "My Lucky Break" in which he tells a story about his plane crashing in Libya to a Mr. Forrester who has been sent to interview him for the Saturday Evening Post. Forrester was so impressed by the tale which he had been meant to turn into a "real" story (assuming that this random soldier wouldn't be able to tell a story in a writerly fashion) that he insisted on its publication verbatim. In googling the episode, I turned up THE REAL STORY.
But who cares? "A Piece of Cake" is a great tale; and Forrester obviously really liked "Shot Down In Libya."
And Roald Dahl was a great writer, and I loved him. Should we revoke his writing license? No more "Danny the Champion of the World" because he told a story that was more good than true?
If it didn't happen that way...it should have.