tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post7913019440583849675..comments2023-02-28T00:51:06.240-08:00Comments on The Inside Cover: Isn’t the story the important thing?Beccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04454844719358203405noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post-33257750805745603652008-01-31T12:56:00.000-08:002008-01-31T12:56:00.000-08:00Becca, the exercise in factual exactitude is a dis...Becca, the exercise in factual exactitude is a disease of those who do not understand the real nature of memoir, or the way that we understand each other in our every day lives or as a society. It has been a disease of bad historians and biographers, in books and films, for a long time. And in the bigger picture,that of understanding society present and past it has been a bone of contention between philosophers and social scientists. If I wanted to know what your day was like, I would want to more more than a list of facts, my intention is to know what your day was like, which really is seeking your thoughts about the day. When I reflect about my day I never really think about what I did so much as what I thought when I did it. That is what I would want to deliver to someone who wanted to know about my day. It is that in much greater extension that a memoir is about. <BR/><BR/>But I think, in memoir alone,it is not just a matter of memory, not just how we perceive things differently, it is a how we understand our experience, our lives. How do we go about that investigation. That requires a sort of coherence of the inner and the outer. If say we were trying to understand the event of Cesar crossing the rubicon, we would of course be interested to know that he did in fact cross it on a particular time and date, but more importantly we would want to understand what were his very thoughts as he did so, and in what context those thoughts took place. <BR/><BR/>It seems more and more though that people on the critical podium are only interested in the external environment represented by so called facts. If they, the facts, are seen to be breached then the whole thing is called into question. There is very little attention paid to the way in which an author may be treating those ouside events in terms of his or her inner thoughts. I cannot recall who said it but whoever it was captured the idea when they said that: an action is the unity of the outside and inside of an event, but the ouside of the even (the facts) are only intelligible in terms of the inside. <BR/><BR/>Sorry to ramble...!!! But you inspired me...Seán McGradyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08138774861378243607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post-17215100514824009932008-01-31T11:46:00.000-08:002008-01-31T11:46:00.000-08:00Sean, it's true, each person has their own percept...Sean, it's true, each person has their own perception of a situation. And when it comes to recalling a particular moment, it may not be the facts that we remember most, but the feelings and thoughts we had in that moment.<BR/><BR/>As for the critical podium, I'm just wondering how long it will take for the entire U.S. and U.K. media to jump on the band wagon. Sometimes I think people search for faults in these memoirs as a way to get a sensational story.Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04454844719358203405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post-21442163325428570172008-01-31T04:47:00.000-08:002008-01-31T04:47:00.000-08:00I like Billy Wilder's comment that preceded the "s...I like Billy Wilder's comment that preceded the "story" in his film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; This is a true story, only the facts have been changed". <BR/><BR/>And, whilst I initially sniggered at an apparent literary liberty, I then thought that there is a powerful epistemological truth in this one line. I wish I had have thought of it, but it refers to a lot of philosophical thought about understanding society and the lives of individuals within it, not as we understand physical processes but more as we understand a language. <BR/><BR/>People automatically jump to the critical podium when a memoir has strayed off the "factual" straight and narrow. It is also the case when there is a history book doing the same or a film that treats of an historical subject. <BR/><BR/>Without going into any in depth analysis of this, as this is only a comment, I think that when we deal with lives, our own and others, what we have to remember are the external and the internal "stories". There is not only far too much emphasis placed on the external situations, it is a categorical mistake to seek understanding of human affairs in those areas. Here we can blame those social scientists for seeking to impose physical scientific method on the humanities. Understanding human nature, human thought, human action, human affairs, is to be referred to the "ideas" we have in the general context of ideas. This is a conceptual pursuit of truth and it is one that cannot be controlled by the so-called facts. If we are to write our life stories we have to pay attention our mental lives. This will certainly not be concerned with the accuracy of facts.Seán McGradyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08138774861378243607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post-73167348956347329872008-01-30T11:47:00.000-08:002008-01-30T11:47:00.000-08:00Chason, thanks for the comment! Also, I meant to h...Chason, thanks for the comment! Also, I meant to have a link to the James Frey book where it says "Ahem." I guess I forgot to post that part...and I'll go fix it right now. thanks so much for reading. I hope to see you back around these parts.Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04454844719358203405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439823737924396912.post-78932606642344334302008-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:002008-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00You make an excellent point about our memories and...You make an excellent point about our memories and how we may very well remember an event in a totally different way than someone else. As individuals we all have different points of view and we take life in through our senses differently than someone else. And your point about the possibility that a person does not have a written record of their life like a diary, journal, etc. is an excellent one. I think that is why most U.S. presidents keep diaries - so they can publish them later or write their memoirs based on their diaries. <BR/>The major example that comes to mind when you talk about blurring the line between fiction and memoir is the James Frey book "A Million Little Pieces." Oprah basically reamed Frey on her show for fabricating portions of his book to make it more dramatic, but I wonder if you think that perhaps Oprah was a little too hard on Frey. The question is should he have presented the book as a memoir or should he have instead presented it as fiction loosely based on his own experience, which in my mind is basically what most fiction is anyway. For example, John Grisham's book, which we both enjoy, are mostly about lawyers and are set in Louisiana, both topics that Grisham is intimately familiar with. In other words, authors can really only write from their own experience, but in the end it is their choice as to whether they present their work as fiction or non-fiction. If they choose the latter, they are likely going to be criticized for fudging facts. But I think you are right to think that it's better sometimes to present a work as non-fiction (as in the case of the boy soldier from Sierra Leone) because it sheds light on a very real and tragic topic that people really need to be educated about.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18432910645758618241noreply@blogger.com