Today, I read our readings for class. I had a very rough night last night, so when I awoke today, I desired nothing more than to do some mindless reading to fill up my afternoon.
Note to self; don't pick up creative nonfiction homework when you have days like these.
What we have this week, folks, is a vignette about writing memoir and a vignette about a poor young woman learning the truth about her parents. Both are painful to read in their own ways. I hate to say that I enjoyed Kelly Grey's essay more than the other, but it is safe to say that I did.
Maybe this is why: for me, when I am reading about a particular genre of writing that I don't know how to write very well (or when learning to do just about anything) I find it easier to understand when the explanation that is given is not bogged down with metaphor and so much reasoning. This is the biggest problem I had when reading "The Nonfictionist's Guide." For as much as I love metaphor and using metaphor to express feelings and concepts that ordinary explanations cannot achieve, I don't appreciate it being used in situations when I am attempting to learn something concrete.
(Unless perhaps you're Jesus, telling parables about salvation to those in the dark. But that is DEFINITELY different.) :)
I had another run-in with this situation in my Education 424 class, in which I was instructed to read passages in my textbook about particular metaphors describing what teaching is like and then forming my own teaching metaphor. As fun and warm-fuzzylike as this exercise may be, I do not see anything concrete in describing your classroom as a kitchen in which you know each of your spices well enough to know which works well together with which.
I did enjoy the pieces in the end, and I always enjoy finding ways that the pieces we read tie together. For example: last week's readings were about pain in very different places. This week, I see how the past can effect us.
[I must admit: I liked the author's metaphor for how our past effects us as a lighthouse, with us walking up the staircase and seeing it from a different vantage point constantly.]
Maybe one day, I will write a memoir. I'd be kind of nervous that my mom would have a similar reaction as the author's father did to his-- like I was raging some personal vendetta against her (assuming I would write about the pain I felt growing up a la Augusten Burroughs' "A Wolf at the Table"). She's just like that sometimes. I feel like I still have a lot of condensing and decompressing to do before I can write said memoir, also known as "getting my shit together."
Until then, I'll keep blogging. Maybe you'll keep reading.
Yeah, I feel you there. For as much as people love to talk about and/or think about themselves, they don't want to be written about. Not as others see them at least. It's just too real. In my mind, I can view myself as confident, witty, and funny. Others, however, might view me as a snide and pompous jackass. I don't want to know this, though. And parents don't want to know how their kids really see the world, including their parents and themselves. Denial is just a part of acceptance, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI think the best thing about nonfiction is that you already know how to write it. It's not like writing formal poetry where the rules guide the content. In this genre, the content dictates the form. You ARE the content.
ReplyDeleteNot to say that I don't understand your frustration with the learning experience. Learning always involves changing yourself somehow, and there ain't nothing easy about it. Still, I like to think that this genre lets you take the raw material of your own perceptions and just tinker with them until something interesting takes shape.
Thoughts taking interesting shapes--that's all the genre is. There s no right or wrong shape, just a process.
Dottie,
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean about Root's Creative Nonfiction book (which I dislike...a lot) and about the difficulty in learning concrete skills or information in somewhat cloudy ways.
And, goodness sakes, Erin and I are sitting here in our dorm room totally agreeing with you about the Educ 424 book. I am so tired of hearing about little Jimmy and his need to help him become that a 'jazz musician' type of student.... Oh Education classes. Yeah.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Touchstone pieces. I actually loved the one about the woman's mother and found the latter a little more difficult to follow. But, honey, I'd read your memoir any day. :)