Introduction

About the Memoir

In early times, the memoir, a genre of creative nonfiction, was far from the autobiography. People often wrote about others than about their own lives. It was only until the19th and 20th centuries when people started writing in the first-person and about their stories with other people. Two examples I could give for this category are My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. Although the two titles are not necessarily the most popular of the genre, I still believe that both possess qualities of great memoirs of this category. Both books, written in first-person, were not about the authors themselves. Nathaniel Branden, in the earlier chapters of his book, gave generous details recounting his experiences, correspondences, and affairs with the literary genius Ayn Rand. Gertrude Stein, another literary genius, wrote the book about Alice B. Toklas with the latter being the narrator. It was also rumored that Toklas was Gertrude Stein's best friend.

It was only during the late 20th centuries when people started writing about themselves, hence the growth of a more sophisticated genre called memoir-writing. Today, this practice entails writing about personal experiences, whether about oneself or another, and an ability to translate experiences into metaphors. In that sense, one can writes about his own life experiences while at the same time shedding light on bigger insights into life. What did the writer learn from a particular anecdote. What insight can a reader gain from reading that anecdote? Nowadays, memoirs come in various hybrid forms as writers always find it necessary to deconstruct and deviate from traditional notions of any discipline, be it prose or poetry. Some notable personal memoirs are Night by Elie Wiesel, Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, and Walden by Henry David Thoreau. What is common among these works is that their authors wrote during or about the time of war and their experiences in it. A predominant facet of most memoirs I have read is the setting of a war in history. One of my favorite memoirs written by a Filipino is the memoir of David M. Consunji, entitled A Passion to Build: A Memoir of David M. Consunji. Consunji is a man I look up to for his character, prudence, intellect, leadership, family-orientedness, and many other positive traits. In his memoir, he wrote about his family from both sides (I admire him for an ability to recall events and people in such detail), humble beginnings, education, war experiences (Japanese and American occupation), company's founding, family life, life in construction, and many other enriching stories. Reading those anecdotes, I was able to get a glimpse of what life in the Philippines was like in earlier times. People were more conservative, religious, and pietous; and education during the Americal colonization was entirely different. A classroom would look like a class in an international school today--there would be classmates of different nationalities, and all were taught and disciplined according to the views of the learning institution.

The rule of thumb in nonfiction is to tell the truth. However, the harder challenge lies in how far one can actually tell the truth. Surely, one cannot remember every word that was said, and one cannot be accurate in writing about a person one has known only for 5 years. Memoir-writing becomes more complicated when truth becomes a requirement. Of course, this aspect is what sets it apart from other forms of prose or poetry. The world of nonfiction becomes a newer world to explore. While Montaigne and Sei Shonagon are canonical writers of this genre, writers like Joan Didion, Julio Cortazar, and Eliot Weinberger are more contemporary authors. The world of nonfiction still remains a mystery to me, and it is a field I would definitely love to pursue and study.

About the Four Memoirs

This blog contains four memoirs by four different writers, each on the theme "Why I Write." This theme was patterned after a poem-prose written by Terry Tempest Williams. You can find the manuscript on this blog. These memoirs are unpublished workshop manuscripts.

Further Reading

The website below contains writings on the same theme. On this website, writers explain why they write.

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3663

Why do people write? And perhaps the most important question should be, "Why do you write?"





Sources:

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/memoir.htm
http://iwp.uiowa.edu/iwp-courses/distance-learning-courses/upcoming-courses/advanced-nonfiction-seminar

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