Absolute Truth In Autobiography: Does It Exist?
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Absolute Truth in Autobiography: Does it Exist?
The recent discovery of lies and deception in James Freys memoir A Million Little Pieces has literary critics and common readers alike looking more closely at nonfiction writers. Some authors, such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Augusten Burroughs have been criticized by those who claim that their so-called memoirs are not completely truthful. Others, such as Jill Ker Conway are so committed to writing the truth down to the last detail that they take pains to do so. These authors undoubtedly hold views about truth that are not unlike those of other autobiographers and literary critics. There seems to be an ongoing debate as to what responsibilities life-writers have to their audience when it comes to the truth as well as the responsibilities they have to the people they include in their book(s). To what degree does the truth need be adhered to? Poet Sharon Olds contends that there is a spectrum of truth.1 Some authors are at the far right of the spectrum, taking a great deal of care when writing nonfiction, while others are far to the right throwing caution to the wind and writing what makes the story more sensational (We can put James Frey over on this side). There are undoubtedly many writers who would fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. Everyone has their own criteria when determining what should and should not be taken into account when writing nonfiction. We must ask ourselves what truth is. Does the definition differ from person to person, or is there an absolute truth? I contend that many nonfiction writers, namely Augusten Burroughs, Jill Ker Conway, Joan Didion, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sara Suleri and Mary Karr all have a certain respect for the truth and do not intend to write in a way to sensationalize their memoirs or get their names on the best sellers list. Although they may have different ways of proving to their audience that what they are writing is the truth, they are all telling their own truths.
Just as writers have their own idea of what truth is, so do literary critics and those who examine the element of truth in autobiographical writing. William Zinsser, in Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, makes his stance on the issue very clear. “To write a memoir you must manufacture a text.You must never forget the storytellers ancient rules of maintaining tension and momentum” (Zinsser). Perhaps Maxine Hong Kingston would agree. The Woman Warrior, Kinstons controversial work about her life growing up as a Chinese-American, has raised questions about whether her book should be categorized as autobiography or as a novel. The use of “Talk-story” is what calls the genre into question. Kingstons work is criticized as being one without a genre. It mixes truth with speculation and legend. Some of her book has been invented, some inherited, some remembered. One scene in her book which shows a combination of remembered and invented text is a memory involving one of her classmates:
“Sniffling and snorting, I couldnt stop crying and talking at the same time. I kept wiping my nose on my arm, my sweater lost somewhere (probably not worn because my mother said to wear a sweater). It seemed as if I had spent my life in that basement, doing the worst thing I had yet done to another person. Im doing this for your own good, I said. Dont you dare tell anyone Ive been bad to you. Talk. Please talk” (Kingston 181).
This scene is easily remembered by Kingston because it was such an emotional one, yet she needs to invent the dialogue. She cannot possibly remember the exact words that were spoken when she was a child.
Much of her book has been inherited- told to her by a family member such as the story she heard from her mother about her aunt. “You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born” (Kingston 1).
Kingston acknowledges that to write an autobiography is to stand at the borderline between memory and invention. Although these “talk-stories” are interspersed throughout actual childhood events, the book still gives the reader a sense of what it was like growing up Chinese-American, and that is what Kingston set out to do.
Mary Karr admits to possibly remembering events differently than her sister Lecia in The Liars Club.
“Lecia says that I misremember one specific sight of her standing in our doorway with that stump bluntly hanging down under her nightie, her arms spread so she could hold herself up by the doorjamb, and her hair fanned out around her face like white fire. I can see it like yesterdays breakfast, but Lecia claims it never happened” (Karr 60-61).
This recognition made on Karrs part puts the reader at ease and tells one that although the event may have not happened exactly in this way, this is how Mary felt at the time and this is how her memory stored it in her mind. Everyone knows that a seven-year-olds mind can exaggerate a situation, much like many adults can. Karr, in an article written for Slate earlier this year admits that she probably forgot or misremembered a million events and details in her books The Liars Club and Cherry, but also refutes “that memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt” (Karr). The most accusative voices towards Karrs memoir came from those she knew in childhood, saying that she should have used the real name of the town or should not have changed the names of some characters. Those who knew Karr first hand during her childhood took offense to the true facts that she changed simply to protect those she was writing about. In this case, protection of her characters backfired and lead to criticism of those represented in the memoirs.
Karr does admit to making up all “Liars Club” meeting stories except for one, which she tape recorded, but does not see this as a deviation from or disrespect for truth. She surmises that given the nature of her fathers stories, the reader would know that the tales were sheer fiction and so would not fall under dispute. Karr gave what she felt was enough truth to make her memoir accurate, but also employed Zinssers idea of manufacturing a text.
I do not think that Karr is wrong in her idea of truth in making up “Liars Club” stories. The original stories told by her father were false to begin with, and their content was obviously of nonfiction. The falsifications