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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
A deliberate slow read for me as I wished to absorb the teaching, while researching and writing my own work, something definitely clicked in my understanding which I hope translates across into my writing.
On The Essay
In the first half Gornick dissects a few essays, citing them as evidence of her theory of the narrative that really demands attention and works, because it has been structured, attention being given to understanding the difference between the situation and the story.
A theory that came to her like an epiphany while attending a funeral, where one person in particular moved her more than the others.
She concludes that because the narrator knew who was speaking, she always knew why she was speaking. She had created a 'persona' of herself in order to eulogize the deceased. An instrument of illumination.
But getting from the understanding of a theory to being able to apply it in one's writing was something that eluded her until she analysed her own attempt of personal journalism (part personal essay and part social criticism) when she was invited to go to Egypt and write about the middle class existence in Cairo in the same way she had being doing while in New York. Overwhelmed by the energy of the city, the drama of its citizens, the work mimicked Egypt itself. It would take years before she was able to control the material with sufficient composure to serve the situation and narrate the kind of story she wished to share.
She then uses examples of demonstrative essays, sharing extracts to show this theory in it's most eminent form. Augustine's [b:Confessions|48900437|Confessions (Augustine)|Saint Augustine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574254893l/48900437._SY75_.jpg|74294100], Edmund Gosse's [b:Father and Son|98935|Father and Son|Edmund Gosse|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1171430104l/98935._SY75_.jpg|95379], Orwell's [b:Shooting an Elephant|30557|Shooting an Elephant|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327297935l/30557._SY75_.jpg|193459], Ackerley's [b:My Father and Myself|241651|My Father and Myself|J.R. Ackerley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385271332l/241651._SY75_.jpg|1429212].
She compares a trilogy of essays that demonstrate the way self-implication can visibly shape a piece of nonfiction writing: Joan Didion's 'In Bed', Harry Crews's 'Why I Live Where I Live' and Edward Hoagland's The Courage of Turtles.
On The Memoir
She posits that modern memoir is of value to the reader only if it is able to dramatise and reflect on the experience of transformation or 'becoming' as the writer moves away from that person one has been told they should be towards the more authentic version that might be revealed beneath.
Quoting the example of Gosse's, Father and Son she observes:
These memoirs that succeed are works that record a steadily changing idea of the emergent self.
Ultimately the advice she gives is to aspiring writer's is to ask oneself certain questions, both in reading and in writing:
What, we would ask of the manuscript,was the larger preoccupation here? the true experience? the real subject? Not that such questions could be answered, only that it seemed vital to me that they be asked.
That exploration of the subconscious might precipitate insights to rise to the surface and spill over onto the page, by digging deeper, one may stumble across the inner context that makes a piece of writing larger than its immediate circumstance.
On The Essay
In the first half Gornick dissects a few essays, citing them as evidence of her theory of the narrative that really demands attention and works, because it has been structured, attention being given to understanding the difference between the situation and the story.
A theory that came to her like an epiphany while attending a funeral, where one person in particular moved her more than the others.
Her words had deepened the atmosphere and penetrated my heart. Why? I wondered even as I brushed away the tears. Why had these words made a difference?
She concludes that because the narrator knew who was speaking, she always knew why she was speaking. She had created a 'persona' of herself in order to eulogize the deceased. An instrument of illumination.
The unsurrogated narrator has the monumental task of transforming low-level self interest into the kind of detached empathy required of a piece of writing that is to be of value to the disinterested reader.
But getting from the understanding of a theory to being able to apply it in one's writing was something that eluded her until she analysed her own attempt of personal journalism (part personal essay and part social criticism) when she was invited to go to Egypt and write about the middle class existence in Cairo in the same way she had being doing while in New York. Overwhelmed by the energy of the city, the drama of its citizens, the work mimicked Egypt itself. It would take years before she was able to control the material with sufficient composure to serve the situation and narrate the kind of story she wished to share.
Every work of literature has bith a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say.
She then uses examples of demonstrative essays, sharing extracts to show this theory in it's most eminent form. Augustine's [b:Confessions|48900437|Confessions (Augustine)|Saint Augustine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574254893l/48900437._SY75_.jpg|74294100], Edmund Gosse's [b:Father and Son|98935|Father and Son|Edmund Gosse|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1171430104l/98935._SY75_.jpg|95379], Orwell's [b:Shooting an Elephant|30557|Shooting an Elephant|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327297935l/30557._SY75_.jpg|193459], Ackerley's [b:My Father and Myself|241651|My Father and Myself|J.R. Ackerley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385271332l/241651._SY75_.jpg|1429212].
She compares a trilogy of essays that demonstrate the way self-implication can visibly shape a piece of nonfiction writing: Joan Didion's 'In Bed', Harry Crews's 'Why I Live Where I Live' and Edward Hoagland's The Courage of Turtles.
We are in the presence, in each instance, of a mind puzzling its way out of its own shadows - moving from unearned certainty to thoughtful reconsideration to clarified self-knowledge. The act of clarifying on the page is an intimate part of the metaphor.
On The Memoir
Truth in a memoir is achieved not through a recital of actual events; it is achieved when the reader comes to believe that the writer is working hard to engage with the experience at hand. What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened. For that, the power of the writing imagination is required.
She posits that modern memoir is of value to the reader only if it is able to dramatise and reflect on the experience of transformation or 'becoming' as the writer moves away from that person one has been told they should be towards the more authentic version that might be revealed beneath.
Quoting the example of Gosse's, Father and Son she observes:
That this son must come into his own by making war not on a parent who is willful and self-involved (which he is) but on one filled with the tender regard that alone gives a growing creature the ability to declare itself (which he also is). This is the thing the reader is meant to register; this is the narrator's wisdom. It is the betrayal of love that is required in order that one become.
These memoirs that succeed are works that record a steadily changing idea of the emergent self.
For each of them a flash of insight illuminating the idea grew out of the struggle to clarify one's own formative experience; and in each case the strength and beauty of the writing lie in the power of concentration with which this insight is pursued, and made to become the writer's organising principle. That principle at work is what makes a memoir literature rather than testament.
Ultimately the advice she gives is to aspiring writer's is to ask oneself certain questions, both in reading and in writing:
What, we would ask of the manuscript,was the larger preoccupation here? the true experience? the real subject? Not that such questions could be answered, only that it seemed vital to me that they be asked.
That exploration of the subconscious might precipitate insights to rise to the surface and spill over onto the page, by digging deeper, one may stumble across the inner context that makes a piece of writing larger than its immediate circumstance.
"who is speaking, what is being said, and what is the relation between the two" had become my single-minded practice"
She ends with an observation about timing, the thing that a can rarely predict.Writing enters into us when it gives us information about ourselves we are in need of at a time that we are reading.
This explains why a worthy book might be overly criticized while one of fleeting value is highly praised, the former, great though it may be, misses the mark because what it has to say can not be absorbed at the moment, while the latteris well received because what it is addressing is alive - now, right now - in the shared psyche.Which is perhaps as it should be. The inner life is nourished only if it gets what it needs when it needs it.
This was required reading for a memoir class I am taking.
I basically read this book. I only had like 30 pages to go so -_-
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I wouldn't say this was all out LOVE, but there's a lot of good stuff in here. Glad I finally read it.
An accessible explanation of why any piece of writing needs a clear and cohesive narrative voice - and how simply writing the raw material of one’s life isn’t the same thing as creating something that can be *of use* to the reader. The bulk of the book, though, is made up of her analyzing various nonfiction pieces - memoirs/essays/hybrids of the two - and at times that drags on a bit.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Gornick has some invaluable wisdom to share, but to find it you'll have to wade through page after page of other people's words and thoughts. This book relied too heavily on half hearted observations of other writer's work, literal pages after pages of quotes, when the chances are you picked up this book to read Gornick's thoughts.
That said, Gornick's simple lesson of the situation and the story is an imperative one for any writer to learn and will surely benefit both fiction & creative non fiction writers.
One for writers to skim read.
That said, Gornick's simple lesson of the situation and the story is an imperative one for any writer to learn and will surely benefit both fiction & creative non fiction writers.
One for writers to skim read.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I found this book both wonderful and enigmatic. Wonderful in that she made such a deep study of persona/voice in memoir - and how CENTRAL it is to have a persona to shape your material, but enigmatic because I would have liked more examples of the persona shaping as well as pointers on how one might do this mysterious thing we need to do.