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racheladventure's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book as a graduation gift from my thesis advisor, John Bennion, after working on my first travel essay collection. As a writer and an anthropologist, this book provides several frameworks that are, I think, useful to think about for a writer trying to navigate the subtle distinctions between memoir, journalism, and travel writing. The writings on ethics are insightful and clearly sprung from concrete, personal experience and lots of thought. Of course (and Hemley admits this), there is overlap in categories, but having categories assigned with subcategories helps me get my mind around the genres. They are just “meant to be useful, not binding” (9).
I’ll get into the break down to summarize my takeaways, but first, how about some gems of wisdom?
• “Nearly every journalist I’ve met has a memoir in his or her drawer” (7).
• “Self matters, and it’s unrealistic…to believe it doesn’t….when I read a work of nonfiction…more often than not, I want to know who’s telling the story and why” (10).
• “To write honestly about the Self more often takes courage and generosity than egoism” (11).
• “It’s one thing to have an experience, but it’s quite another to get a handle on it” (16).
• “The book you write almost never turns out to be the book you set out to write” (22).
• “Just because you’re confused and don’t have a handle on your material doesn’t mean you’re working on a book…Mostly, it means you don’t know yet what you’re writing about or why, and you need to discover what those things are before the writing gels” (39).
• “Any writer writing about the past is recovering the dead, is Orpheus leading Eurydice from Hades” (46).
• “No one wants to read about an easy quest” (50).
• “Who can rescue you from the unchartered and dangerous waters of your own mind?” (56).
• From Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past!”
• “A good writer aims for conflict rather than steering clear of it” (77).
• “Immersion projects almost invariably do change you” (89).
• “If you knew what was going to happen in the end, there would be no point in starting. Setting out to prove a point only colors the experience and then skews the results more than your inescapable subjectivity and prejudices already do. You have to leap. You have to be a bit reckless. Maybe more than a bit. Maybe a lot” (92).
• From Barry Hannah, “Write honestly about what you love and put a little music in it” (113).
• “All journeys begin first in the imagination” (117).
• From G. K. Chesterton, “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set food on one’s own country as a foreign land” (117).
• “I…am much more comfortable with people who don’t know who they are than I am with people who have no doubts. Those people scare me” (123).
• “If it’s mostly the money that interests you, go for an MBA” (138).
• “People don’t exist simply to populate our books” (161).
• “To be a writer out in the world is to be a student of the world” (186).
And now, the categories of immersion writing:
Immersion Memoir: “Takes on some outward task of journey in order to put his/her life in perspective” (11). These writers do not attempt objectivity the way journalists do (48). The object is more to figure out something about the self.
• The Reenactment: “Do-overs,” trying to make the past come alive again, but modifying approach to “suit her own” and new, goals (21). This can be personal or historical (but they “inevitably…merge” (26).
• The Experiment: When someone does something , usually for about a year, to discover something. It usually “relies on chronology” (33).
• The Infiltration: Also popular, you can be a spy or an insider. The insider doesn’t try to hide their real identity or purpose.
• The Investigation: Infiltrators are investigators but not necessarily vice versa. You can investigate without being a spy or insider (42). These writers are somewhere between insider and outsider, which produces a unique tension (43).
• The Quest: written about personal goals. The French word queste apparently came from the word meaning an act of seeking (50).
Immersion Journalism: Probably has something to do with the outside world, at least, more so than memoir needs to. “If the journalist leaves herself out of the story, it’s not an immersion piece,” so what is mentioned here is sometimes called “Participatory Journalism” (55). While the vertical pronoun is still there, the focus is not as much on the self. “The immersion journalist tends to wear himself lightly, while the immersion memoirist doesn’t (76).
• The Investigation: Might help to get obsessed about an idea. Most immersion journalism “involves some sort of investigation” (65).
• The Reenactment: Like those books going under cover as other people to expose different societal problems, etc.
• The Quest: A writer “wears herself lightly” and using that experience “as a stand-in for experience or wishes of the multitudes” (76).
• The Experiment: Can get sketchy quick… be ethical, but can bring social issues to life.
• The Infiltration: Similar to memoirist, but “different concerns and results.” You have to earn the trust of the people you work with (83). Any mocking or condescending tone and the book can fail terribly (85). Thank goodness that is no longer in vogue. This seems like it can take a long time.
Travel Writing: Great, but not always glamorous. It used to be when people would go off into far corners of the world and bring back stories of odd practices. Now it is more about “exploring his or her own eccentricities and odd behaviors” (104). It used to mean the audience was an outsider, but things are changing with new technology.
• The Infiltration: All travelers are infiltrators, though superficial tourism is the worst of it
• The Question: Often implies a “spiritual journey, but not always” (117). It can also be about identity, origin, or principle.
• The Reenactment: Someone basically recreates something that has happened to revisit it in a different way. Sometimes it is to prove or disprove a theory (125).
• The Investigation or Forensic Journey: this is kind of like a quest, but a quest implies you want to have a life change, and that is not so much the case for the forensic journey/investigation (132).
• The Experiment: Sometimes you have to have fun.
I’ll get into the break down to summarize my takeaways, but first, how about some gems of wisdom?
• “Nearly every journalist I’ve met has a memoir in his or her drawer” (7).
• “Self matters, and it’s unrealistic…to believe it doesn’t….when I read a work of nonfiction…more often than not, I want to know who’s telling the story and why” (10).
• “To write honestly about the Self more often takes courage and generosity than egoism” (11).
• “It’s one thing to have an experience, but it’s quite another to get a handle on it” (16).
• “The book you write almost never turns out to be the book you set out to write” (22).
• “Just because you’re confused and don’t have a handle on your material doesn’t mean you’re working on a book…Mostly, it means you don’t know yet what you’re writing about or why, and you need to discover what those things are before the writing gels” (39).
• “Any writer writing about the past is recovering the dead, is Orpheus leading Eurydice from Hades” (46).
• “No one wants to read about an easy quest” (50).
• “Who can rescue you from the unchartered and dangerous waters of your own mind?” (56).
• From Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past!”
• “A good writer aims for conflict rather than steering clear of it” (77).
• “Immersion projects almost invariably do change you” (89).
• “If you knew what was going to happen in the end, there would be no point in starting. Setting out to prove a point only colors the experience and then skews the results more than your inescapable subjectivity and prejudices already do. You have to leap. You have to be a bit reckless. Maybe more than a bit. Maybe a lot” (92).
• From Barry Hannah, “Write honestly about what you love and put a little music in it” (113).
• “All journeys begin first in the imagination” (117).
• From G. K. Chesterton, “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set food on one’s own country as a foreign land” (117).
• “I…am much more comfortable with people who don’t know who they are than I am with people who have no doubts. Those people scare me” (123).
• “If it’s mostly the money that interests you, go for an MBA” (138).
• “People don’t exist simply to populate our books” (161).
• “To be a writer out in the world is to be a student of the world” (186).
And now, the categories of immersion writing:
Immersion Memoir: “Takes on some outward task of journey in order to put his/her life in perspective” (11). These writers do not attempt objectivity the way journalists do (48). The object is more to figure out something about the self.
• The Reenactment: “Do-overs,” trying to make the past come alive again, but modifying approach to “suit her own” and new, goals (21). This can be personal or historical (but they “inevitably…merge” (26).
• The Experiment: When someone does something , usually for about a year, to discover something. It usually “relies on chronology” (33).
• The Infiltration: Also popular, you can be a spy or an insider. The insider doesn’t try to hide their real identity or purpose.
• The Investigation: Infiltrators are investigators but not necessarily vice versa. You can investigate without being a spy or insider (42). These writers are somewhere between insider and outsider, which produces a unique tension (43).
• The Quest: written about personal goals. The French word queste apparently came from the word meaning an act of seeking (50).
Immersion Journalism: Probably has something to do with the outside world, at least, more so than memoir needs to. “If the journalist leaves herself out of the story, it’s not an immersion piece,” so what is mentioned here is sometimes called “Participatory Journalism” (55). While the vertical pronoun is still there, the focus is not as much on the self. “The immersion journalist tends to wear himself lightly, while the immersion memoirist doesn’t (76).
• The Investigation: Might help to get obsessed about an idea. Most immersion journalism “involves some sort of investigation” (65).
• The Reenactment: Like those books going under cover as other people to expose different societal problems, etc.
• The Quest: A writer “wears herself lightly” and using that experience “as a stand-in for experience or wishes of the multitudes” (76).
• The Experiment: Can get sketchy quick… be ethical, but can bring social issues to life.
• The Infiltration: Similar to memoirist, but “different concerns and results.” You have to earn the trust of the people you work with (83). Any mocking or condescending tone and the book can fail terribly (85). Thank goodness that is no longer in vogue. This seems like it can take a long time.
Travel Writing: Great, but not always glamorous. It used to be when people would go off into far corners of the world and bring back stories of odd practices. Now it is more about “exploring his or her own eccentricities and odd behaviors” (104). It used to mean the audience was an outsider, but things are changing with new technology.
• The Infiltration: All travelers are infiltrators, though superficial tourism is the worst of it
• The Question: Often implies a “spiritual journey, but not always” (117). It can also be about identity, origin, or principle.
• The Reenactment: Someone basically recreates something that has happened to revisit it in a different way. Sometimes it is to prove or disprove a theory (125).
• The Investigation or Forensic Journey: this is kind of like a quest, but a quest implies you want to have a life change, and that is not so much the case for the forensic journey/investigation (132).
• The Experiment: Sometimes you have to have fun.
ariel_bloomer's review against another edition
4.0
I can forgive the author his occasional boastfulness, as to write one necessarily must have a larger-than-normal ego. The book was an honest discussion of how these genres are accomplished, how they can be done well, and the ethical considerations of this sort of non-fiction. I appreciated the exercises, and love that I came away from this book not only with Hemley's ideas, but new ideas of my own. He is a genuine teacher and thought-provoker.
I wasn't expecting the chapters on ethics or book/magazine proposals, but this book wouldn't have been complete without delving into the philosophical and practical aspects of immersion writing.
I wasn't expecting the chapters on ethics or book/magazine proposals, but this book wouldn't have been complete without delving into the philosophical and practical aspects of immersion writing.
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