{"id":77,"date":"2004-03-11T01:27:13","date_gmt":"2004-03-11T07:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2004\/03\/11\/thanks-for-the-memoirs\/"},"modified":"2006-02-16T01:28:24","modified_gmt":"2006-02-16T07:28:24","slug":"thanks-for-the-memoirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/thanks-for-the-memoirs\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks for the memoirs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thursday, March 11, 2004.<\/b> What does it say about a person when, first, they continue to carry on about years’ old problems as if they were fresh and, second, they evidently feel a need to tell people about them? It’s evidence perhaps of this being the memoir-and-Oprah age of self-revelation or confession being a curative, or just entertainment.<\/font><\/p>\n

That puts it too simply and a little inaccurate. Oprah Winfrey is very good at that sort of thing on her show, but lots of other programs did it first. Phil Donahue comes to mind.<\/font><\/p>\n

Memoir is a construct. At its best and most sincere, the form does attempt non-fiction, but it comes down to one person’s view and thus is by definition, tautologically, limited. So why does it sell so well? Why is memoir now being taught, for credit and in continuing ed? OK, it’s fun, sometimes instructive to get inside the head of someone else. But you can look at yourself, especially if you write, and admit with little thought that what you put down at any one time is just a piece of what’s racing around your head.<\/font><\/p>\n

Is fiction better? For entertainment and enlightenment yes, because it has the luxury, the permission, of being well-considered by the writer. The fiction writer is not constrained by truth because he or she is aware that any reporting of any truth is merely a reflection of a side of truth that can be communicated at just one instant. The storyteller can use all perspectives, often trying to get to the same end of creating a complete story.<\/font><\/p>\n

One confusion comes in when storytellers are assumed to be closet memoirists, denying the possibilities of imagination to make sense of the world. And so on. -30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock   Thursday, March 11, 2004. What does it say about a person when, first, they continue to carry on about years’ old problems as if they were fresh and, second, they evidently feel a need to tell people about them? It’s evidence perhaps of this being the memoir-and-Oprah age of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-course-of-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":167,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/03\/freys-fatal-flaw\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":0},"title":"Frey’s fatal flaw","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. This novel -- ingested via a CD set with not one but three narrators portraying the four principal roles -- from just last year is a good read. Besides wondering how the characters are getting along now, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":417,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/04\/judge-date-by-her-cover\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":1},"title":"Judge Date by Her Cover","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are three articles claiming with scant evidence that women are fiction and men non-fiction. The earliest comes from the March 24, 2008, edition of The New Yorker, which started out as possibly a look at where the two literatures overlap in either memoir or false memoir. But near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/01\/difference-between-fiction-fact\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":2},"title":"Difference between fiction, fact","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock The difference between fiction and fact Friday 13 January 2006. I won't do them the favor of hyperlinking these memoirists, James Frey and JT LeRoy. But there's the names and here's a news search engine. Memoirs are autobiographies and factual. The books by these men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":327,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/06\/dave-barry-but-seriously\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":3},"title":"Dave Barry, But Seriously","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- Amazing speakers addressed the opening morning of the 31st annual conference of the National Conference of Christians and Columnists, er, National Conference for Columnists and Justice, er, National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Time, and the potential for flagging interest (mine or readers?), prevents a full transcription of today's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia Phreedom"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia Phreedom","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/philadelphia-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"With endless good humor, Dave poses with everyone.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/daveben.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":556,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/08\/duma-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":4},"title":"Duma Me","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Book report: Duma Key by Stephen King I can be a snob sometimes: I enjoyed most movies based on Stephen King novels but read nothing of his until seeing a short story or two early this decade in The New Yorker. The plan's not to catch up on everything he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":5},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}