We went to the movies this afternoon. We used to go more than we have in the recent past; maybe we are getting too old to enjoy the animated and action films so popular today. For whatever reason, we find few we consider worthwhile. But today we found a gem. The Help.. I had led discussions in two book clubs shortly after the novel came out. In each group there were persons from the North and the South which made the discussions interesting to lead, to say the least. If a person grew up in the South with black help in their home, their reaction to the novel by Kathryn Stockett, Berkley Books, 2010, was different than someone who lived in the North, even though they employed black help. The reasons for those differences seemed clear to me. This is not the place to delve deeply into those factors but I can sum them up in a few words. The South had laws on the books, unwritten codes and an invisible line that were not to be broken or crossed. Not found in the North, these laws and codes of prejudice were used in the South to suppress the black race The Civil Rights Movement.brought these injustices into the light of day. Stockett crafts her story of this sorrowful era of the early 60s into a heartwarming, as well as a disturbing story. The movie stuck to the book as well as an I can remember. The characters come alive on the screen, the acting is superb, easily making it a movie never to forget.
And the tears. I don't know if I were crying for the storyline of the movie or for the injustices done to my friend Catherine and generations of women before her who cleaned the homes, cooked the meals, and most importantly of all, reared the children of white families in the South.
Go see the movie. Don't hesitate to ask your husband or significant other. I noticed the man beside me had a difficult time in finding something to wipe away the tears. I would go again.
Thank you for taking time to read this post. Your comments are welcomed
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
IS THE PLAIN TRUTH ENOUGH IN MEMOIR WRITING?
As I prepare to teach a class in memoir writing, I know which class will generate more questions. "Speaking the Truth." (In a previous post I talked about writing the truth, "The Truth and Only the Truth").Without a doubt there will be students who choose both sides of the issue---one will not embellish and will have a boring memoir, and another will use literary devices to enhance the story. Hopefully no one will be harsh in dealing with the truth. Readers will ask for more from the memorist who crafts the truth in such a way as to draw them into the story.
Judith Barrington, in her book, "Writing the Memoir,"(The Eighth Mountain Press ISBN 0-33377-51-7, 2002) begins the chapter on"The Truth:What, Why and How" with this statement;"Those of us who write memoirs find ourselves speculating frequently about truth. What is it? How can one person know it? What is its relationship to facts?
Barrington continues by saying, "she felt that too much research could result in your realizing the story you have been carrying around in your head for so long could not be true. The dates don't match up or someone left before the other arrived. I disliked research until recently, which may be why I chose to write memoirs for which I relied primarily on memory."
In William Zinsser's "Inventing the Truth,"(A Marine Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-395-90150-1, 1998), weighs in on some of today's writers of memoirs. "Today no remembered episode is too sordid, no family too dysfunctional, to be trotted out for the wonderment of the masses in books and magazines and on talk shows." This book is an compilation of nine authors who are noted for their memoirs.
Frank McCourt has been cited in other posts regarding his attitude toward his family, particularly, his mother, Angela. In "Angela's Ashes," he marvels at the fact he survived it, and the second marvel is that he was able to triumph over it in "Angela's Ashes''beating back the past with grace and humor and with the power of language." In his books, McCourt, as do others, Hamil, Karr, and Wolff, represent the new memoir at its best, "it's because they were written with love." They want the readers to know "they elevate the past."
Russell Baker has always been one of my favorite writers. He was a columnist for the New York Times when he wrote the first draft of "Growing Up." After finishing the first draft he realized he had written a "reporter's book." He had witten about the Depression era and its effect on his family. "What he left out was his mother and himself--in short, the story." In order to rewrite the memoir, his life had to be reinvented.("Inventing the Truth, 1998, p.15).
I think this quote from Russell Baker sums up the difference in auto biography and memoir: "The autobiographer's problem is that he knows too much--he knows the whole iceburg, not just the tip."
I will close this post with a quote from Judith Barrington's book: "One thing we can probably agree on is that the truth, however we define it, is often hard to tell. It can be hard to tell the facts of the story, and it can be hard to tell its emotional truth, too."
Your comments are welcomed.
Judith Barrington, in her book, "Writing the Memoir,"(The Eighth Mountain Press ISBN 0-33377-51-7, 2002) begins the chapter on"The Truth:What, Why and How" with this statement;"Those of us who write memoirs find ourselves speculating frequently about truth. What is it? How can one person know it? What is its relationship to facts?
Barrington continues by saying, "she felt that too much research could result in your realizing the story you have been carrying around in your head for so long could not be true. The dates don't match up or someone left before the other arrived. I disliked research until recently, which may be why I chose to write memoirs for which I relied primarily on memory."
In William Zinsser's "Inventing the Truth,"(A Marine Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-395-90150-1, 1998), weighs in on some of today's writers of memoirs. "Today no remembered episode is too sordid, no family too dysfunctional, to be trotted out for the wonderment of the masses in books and magazines and on talk shows." This book is an compilation of nine authors who are noted for their memoirs.
Frank McCourt has been cited in other posts regarding his attitude toward his family, particularly, his mother, Angela. In "Angela's Ashes," he marvels at the fact he survived it, and the second marvel is that he was able to triumph over it in "Angela's Ashes''beating back the past with grace and humor and with the power of language." In his books, McCourt, as do others, Hamil, Karr, and Wolff, represent the new memoir at its best, "it's because they were written with love." They want the readers to know "they elevate the past."
Russell Baker has always been one of my favorite writers. He was a columnist for the New York Times when he wrote the first draft of "Growing Up." After finishing the first draft he realized he had written a "reporter's book." He had witten about the Depression era and its effect on his family. "What he left out was his mother and himself--in short, the story." In order to rewrite the memoir, his life had to be reinvented.("Inventing the Truth, 1998, p.15).
I think this quote from Russell Baker sums up the difference in auto biography and memoir: "The autobiographer's problem is that he knows too much--he knows the whole iceburg, not just the tip."
I will close this post with a quote from Judith Barrington's book: "One thing we can probably agree on is that the truth, however we define it, is often hard to tell. It can be hard to tell the facts of the story, and it can be hard to tell its emotional truth, too."
Your comments are welcomed.
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