Talking to my intro to journalism class about James Frey and his fungible definition of “memoir” (stuff that I remember that may not have actually happened, as least to me) has been interesting. A few of my students were Frey fans who felt betrayed by the Smoking Gun revelations and were now disinclined to read future works by him. And most assumed that making up stuff that you pass off as true was new under the sun.
How then explain Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year, in which a nameless narrator describes events that occurred when Defoe was five years old? And presents himself as a grown merchant and Londoner (a character much like the author’s uncle it turns out)? Journalism was just being born then, and Defoe was one of the people birthing it, and we can imagine from what we know of his impertinent behavior that he probably enjoyed passing something off as fact that was fiction — albeit well-researched, believable fiction about real events.
Similarly, Mark Twain’s essay “A Private History of a Campaign That Failed” recounts the author’s less-than-heroic stint of military duty (he “fought” for the Confederacy in Missouri for a few weeks near the beginning of the Civil War). The characters and particulars of geography are factual but the story’s climax, in which Twain and his fellow Rangers shoot and kill a man who may or not have been a Union scout, is almost certainly fiction. He added the detail over time, both to give the story more heft and to clarify his opposition to war.
“I liked this story before you told me that the killing might not be real,” one of my students said. “I don’t know how I feel about it now.”
That’s a good place to start.
it seems to me there are two separate issues: truth and writing. presumably everyone can tell the truth. but not everyone can write … or write well. writing is a skill and while some can make careers of it, others can’t. if a story is good and well written, it is good and well written regardless of whether it is true. if it is not true and someone labels it as such, then that is a lie, but it shouldn’t affect whether it is a good, well-written story. just because you write something that is true, that doesn’t mean it’s well written. the frey controversy (of which I’m bored to tears) is not about writing, it’s about honesty. why should we be surprised that writers lie? lawyers do it. realtors do it. magazine editors do it. politicians do it. teachers do it. the frey thing should spark a conversation about truth and its role in our society rather than a conversation about the definition of memoir, autobiography, etc. unless, of course, one is a journalist/reporter. in which case, they’re always lying.
ouch, and I thought I was cynical. I don’t think I’m always lying but if I was how would I know? riddle me that, caped crusader…
oops … sorry that was not meant to be a personal attack. in my mind there is a big difference between “journalists” and writers/editors … based on your work, i’d say you fall into the latter category.