I think that any published text written as a means of story-telling or sharing has the potential for statements that are true only to a degree. When it comes to memoirs specifically, it's up to the author to recount how an event took place. However there is a line between absolute memory and wishful thinking that has the potential to blur, and when this takes place you have an embellished memoir. In my opinion your life should be exceptionally interesting or of historic insight to merit a published memoir. I think if you need to lie significantly to better your memoir, then maybe you should stick to non-fiction and write a nice little story based on how you wish your life really was. A memoir should be around 95% true and factual, the other 5 percent can be small details that are false only if due to the unavoidable error of human memory. Certainly if it is in an author's interest to deliberately script more than is true, then it is the author's responsibility to properly and thoroughly cover their tracks and deal with their conscience.
In my opinion Glassco's Memoirs of Montparnasse is quick and easy to dismiss; “One quarter of the book (Memoirs) was lies...” One quarter is significantly more than five percent in terms of truth leeway. I would call this piece a story, not a memoir, especially when interaction with other human beings is falsely claimed. When entire events are made up it's not a 'fuzzy detail' moment it is a blatant lie. In terms of Lonelygirl15, I personally found this weird, deceptive, and a comment on the world today where sneaky pretenses are used to make a quick and dirty buck. The videos are made by two older men who see the internet as a new venue of entertainment. Key word, entertainment, these videos are in no way a memoir. While the creators skirted the truth factor easily at first, it was unavoidable considering their desired and achieved traffic.
People still read the book and watch the videos, and they still enjoy them as a form of entertainment. Which is great. But entertainment such as Lonelygirl15 is completely different from an account of factual events and that distinction should be made clearly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also believe there should be an obvious distinction between factual and fictional. Some people would not care whether it’s fictional or not as long as they were entertained. However, there are some people who found the book or the blog to be profound and inspirational and those are the people who will be devastated if they knew it was all a lie.
ReplyDeleteI also agree 5% of the memoir maybe fictional due to 'some' valid reasons like "unavoidable error of human memory" or perhaps trying to conceal someone's identity. But if a writer or a blogger alters their stories to sound more captivating to the audience then I would consider that a lie.
I also agree 5% of the memoir may be fictional due to valid reasons like "unavoidable error of human memory" and peraphs conceal someone's identity.