Hampl and Frey, need I say more?

I enjoyed Patricia Hampl's essay, "Memory and Imagination" very much because it seemed to mirror the idea of searching for one's own personal truth, which she spoke of in the essay. I think it is very hard for a writer to keep the memoir as true to the memory as possible, not only because our memories are so fallible, but also because we want to make the story interesting--we want to use our craft of writing to the best of our abilities. It is that craft that sometimes has a head on collision with the actual memory. It is our craft that mingles with our memories which create inaccuracies, which is why we have to revise. Until I read this essay I believed that if I revised the draft then I was taking away from the truth. I realize now that the truths are revealed to us in the revision. Hampl said it best, "I see the filmy shape of the next draft. I see a more accurate version of the next episode or--this is more likely--an entirely new piece
rising from the ashes of the first attempt. The next draft of the piece would have to be true re-vision, a new seeing of the materials of the first draft."

Reading this my eyes were opened.

It was so interesting to acknowledge that our memories our fallible, but more than that they are interrupted by other memories, emotions associated with our memories (as well as day to day emotions) what is happening in the world around us and in our own world. Hampl talked about that we are in search of a world with our writing, and I couldn't agree more. We are making up a world with our writing that we believe was there in our memories and that we want to share with others. I feel that we are doing that as writers because we NEED a community or at least the sense of community to enfold us with its arms.

Hampl knows that memoir is a literary form because it is a personal history that does more than history written in text books. It is also, as Hampl discusses, the memoirists job to Show and Tell. We cannot do one or the other, it is not in the memoirists cards. This is a heavy burden and a great burden that memoirists take upon themselves to help them find their personal truth, the larger truth and their place in history. Again it helps the memoirist to find their world--their community.

I agree whole heartedly with Hampl when she writes that memoir captures, "the life-of-the-times as no political analysis can". Look at Weisel's Night, that memoir captured the history and the lives of Jews in concentration camps more than any chapter in a World History text book could ever wish to do. It is everyone of us that makes our own history and effects the history of the world. We are all intertwined. If everyone wrote down their own history, their own memoir, we would see a different world.

I believe that labeling a book Memoir does create a contract with the reader that the contents in the book are as true and as factual as the memory writing them down will allow them to be. I believe that any severe change such as Mary Karr's name changes should be announced to the reader so that they will not feel cheated later on. It allows the reader to trust their narrator more. I purchased and read A Million Little Pieces per Oprahs' suggestion. I thought that the book was written so rawly that it had to be a memoir. In fact I believe that it was the first "memoir" that I had ever written. When I found out that it wasn't a memoir I have to say that I wasn't angry or disappointed. I think that I would be now, if I had taken this class first and then read it. But then again maybe not, I would just think of it as historical fiction.

I want to write a memoir, but I want it to be as factual as possible. I know now how hard that can be, but also how freeing and necessary. If I did have to change names or places to guard the people I love I would do so, but I would let my readers know from the beginning. I want them to go on a journey of self-discovery with me and I believe the only way we will both make it is if we are both honest with one another.