Saturday, October 6, 2007

Memoir: A self-reflective account

Each day of our lives is truly a page in a book. We fill them never ending struggles and accomplishments; some memorable, some typical, and some life changing. Every individual has their own collection, many are exposed, many are concealed. Praised authors write fictional stories that appeal to wide audiences; they succeed generally because they are relatable to all human beings. Most find inspiration in their personal lives and relationships with others (characters are often crafted identical to friends of the writer).

On the contrary frequent readers find that real life accounts (memoirs) are the best form of literature because they capture raw emotion that only a real person can feel. Authors find memoirs challenging because they cannot fictionalize an actual experience like a typical novel. However they find solace in such writing because it allows them to describe an instance that they know absolutely everything about and can put in their own words. Memoirs are generally very original. The lessons learned are all very realistic and relatable and the laughs and pains are felt equally. A powerful story is one coming straight from the heart; memoirs succeed.

6 comments:

Falindrith Lanthaloran said...

I think memoirs can be quite fictionalized. Some quite a bit (A Million Little Pieces anyone?). You really don't know what is true and what is a half-truth. Although, if you told a memoir exactly how it happened, it may not be as exctiting. ;)
Good stuff in this post Chris!

Ms. Froehlich said...

Interesting that you say people find "solace" in writing down their own memories because they are their own. Do you mean that people comfort themselves by writing down what has happened to them?

Falindrith Lanthaloran said...

Ahhhhh!!! I really want to answer Mrs. Froehlich's question, but this is your post Chris! I'll wait until the end of this week and then share my thoughts. ;)

And get well soon Chris! We miss you already!!!

Ross C. said...

I mostly agree with you Chris, but I disagree that memoirs have to be the whole truth, like Evan said they can be fictionalized quite a bit, like Black Boy probably was in some instances. Personally I still love fiction much more, I like to read the stories that one "can't" relate to their own lives. Or atleast not much, like Eragon :)

Charlotte L said...

I'm still not over your concluding sentence. Way to end it with a bang! I agree with you that people write memoirs because it's something they know almost everything about. It hadn't occured to me that people can write about themselves with so much pleasure because they're experts on themselves. You'd think that would be obvious to me, and yet it wasn't...

Sarah said...

I love the metaphor about each day of our lives being like a page is a book. I agree with your statement about the fact that most people can relate to memoirs and that's the cause for their popularity. very good response chris :)