Memoir and Truth

“the purpose of writing is to enhance mystery, not solve it.”

-Tim O’Brien

Journal for Today

Take 5 minutes to write about an event that changed your life (or a memory that you still have from childhood). Describe it in as much detail as possible. Don’t leave

anything out.

Two Truths and a Lie

• On a scrap sheet of paper, write down two truths and a lie about yourself.

• With your partner, share your three things without letting them know which one is a lie…let them guess!

• The “good liar” will then find someone else to pair with.

• Repeat until there are only two people left!

Does a story need to be a work of non-fiction to be a

work of truth?

Metafiction

• Fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality– Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and

Practice  of Self-Conscious Fiction.New York: Methuen, 1984.

Verisimilitude

• The quality of realism in something

Melodrama

• Exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters and interpersonal (between individuals) conflicts

James Frey Controversy

• Read “A Million Little Lies” and write your opinion about what James Frey did.

• Was he wrong to exaggerate in a memoir?

• Oprah Interview

Lies in A Million Little Pieces• Was involved in accident that killed a schoolmate

(although he knew her)• Served a few hours in prison instead of a few months• Account of arrests• He had a root canal procedure done without

anesthesia (he did have the procedure done, however)

• Questions those he knew in treatment facility (he can’t reveal their names to protect their anonymity

Get in your groups.

Top 10 Infamous Fake Memoirs• Top 10 Infamous Fake Memoirs• http://listverse.com/2010/03/06/top-10-infamous-fak

e-memoirs/Saturday, March 6th 2010by Skeratch aka Scratch• A memoir can hardly be expected to contain the whole truth. Memories are faulty

and the authors, of course, are presenting their own personal view of themselves. But faulty memories, omission, and slight exaggeration are far different than completely warping the truth or creating an entirely imaginary life. Whatever their motivation, many people have published false memoirs and many more people have unknowingly and ardently supported them. When the memoir is revealed as false, a surprisingly common reaction is to appeal to the emotional truth of the story. It’s about how we feel in our guts, not what reality dictates. I submit that such ideas are dangerous and should be strongly opposed. The truth is important, and it should not be sacrificed for romantic notions rooted in irrationalism. We read and create true stories of triumph and tragedy all of the time, but if we have the urge to dramatize real events we can: it’s called fiction. Below are ten false memoirs in chronological order.

In your groups…• Read the information on the memoir assigned.

Summarize the information on a separate sheet of paper and decide, as a group, whether you think it was wrong of the author to present his/her book as a memoir when part of it was fiction.

• Decide on a RECORDER to write this down and a PRESENTER to share your opinion with the class.

• On your poster, you should have:– Title, Author– Notes on Falsehoods– Opinion of whether or not the author was morally wrong

Long Lance, 1928

Papillon, 1969

Go Ask Alice, 1971

The Education of Little Tree: a True Story, 1976

The Hitler Diaries, 1983

Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, 1997

Forbidden Love, 2003

Love and Consequences, 2008

Angel at the Fence, 2009 (cancelled)

Rewrite your memory

After our discussion today, how accurate to the truth was your memory of an experience that changed you?

Now (and for homework if you don’t finish), rewrite your memory of the experience, adding details and elaborating so that your audience can feel what you felt when it happened (even if it’s not

exactly what happened.