The Past As We Remember It
Hmmm! With people still buzzing about James Frey's "fradulent" memoir, it's funny that I'd run across this course description at the UC Berkeley Extension on memoir writing:
Introduction to Memoir Writing
X6 (3 semester units in English)
The notion that we each have a distinct and compelling story to tell is the essence of memoir--a genre that depends on the past as we remember it. Through reading and writing exercises, you explore the shifting landscape of memory and the creative license that it affords you on the page. The course examines why the concepts of 'truth' and 'nonfiction' can sometimes seem at odds, and helps students to reconcile the two. The assigned writing exercises build toward a 15-20 page memoir.
As I said earlier, it's all in the expectation and even though there was some admitted embellishing, it is evident that the memoir genre has some grey areas.
2 Comments:
I realize memoirs are just that memories logged. One persons' recall of a memory is always going to be different from anothers'. My issue is, call it what it is and don't misrepresent the facts to the public. The publishing company is now having him add a "disclaimer" if you will stating names and events have been changed. Well guess what, that horse is already out of the gate. As far as I am concerned, he has now set precedence for others to do the same thing which to me degrades literature/journalism and all associated arts.
This has definitely been enlightening so I will leave it at that. People will just have to be more careful.
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