tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post8698987411704366849..comments2024-03-26T13:46:42.738-05:00Comments on 4 Quarters, 10 Dimes: Thoughts on MemoirsDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-32524952788225019082011-07-08T12:50:47.379-05:002011-07-08T12:50:47.379-05:00There’s always going to be chaff among the wheat, ...There’s always going to be chaff among the wheat, just as there will always be Kardashians who will write memoirs. Even those can be fun if you’re in the right frame of mind, though – the interesting things they say aren’t there intentionally. I once read a fascinating memoir written by a Kardashian equivalent from the 1930s.<br /><br />I think John is right about how memoirs give us a window into history (as Ken Burns did by using letters and diaries). One of the big struggles in history over the last century was about ownership – whose stories get to be told. Despite the resurgence in Great White Man history of late, there is a general consensus among historians that the rest of us also have stories worth telling.<br /><br />But historians are lousy at that sort of thing except in the aggregate - most people don't tell their stories, so all we have to work with is statistics. Having ordinary people tell their stories makes it possible for historians to tell their stories. <br /><br />I love <i>This American Life</i> for that reason (among others). They’re stories about people getting through their days - and if there is a better way to phrase that than “stories of ordinary people going through extraordinary moments of time - or ordinary moments of time told in an extraordinary way” I haven’t found it – thanks Carol Elaine.<br /><br />The fact that we’re discussing this on a blog is sort of “meta” isn’t it?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-74350794289912728792011-07-08T12:13:29.560-05:002011-07-08T12:13:29.560-05:00There's a reason such radio shows as "Thi...There's a reason such radio shows as "<a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/" rel="nofollow">This American Life</a>" and "<a href="http://themoth.org/radio" rel="nofollow">The Moth Radio Hour</a>" have such large followings. They may not be memoirs in the strictest sense, but they share the stories of ordinary people going through extraordinary moments of time - or ordinary moments of time told in an extraordinary way.<br /><br />This is far more interesting to me than the written drooling of certain celebrities (looking in the directions of Palins <i>mère</i> and <i>fille</i>).Carol Elainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06041453807217603422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-69316516357949133642011-07-08T09:59:37.014-05:002011-07-08T09:59:37.014-05:00And isn't another function of memiors to give ...And isn't another function of memiors to give future historians a bit of explanation about the attitudes and physical limitations that bounded people in the past? <br /><br />One of the ways I teach my kids about history is through memiors or pseuso-memior such as Little Women, and the talk of lighting lamps and so forth gets to their questions of "why didn't they just phone someone". Adults have subtler but similar biases about the way people behaved in the past, and if history is to have use as the record of a living experiment in human behavior, we have to keep track of the variables that aren't isolated. The memiors of "Great Men" don't do that so well, but the memoirs of people like Mary Chestnut help us do that as much or more than Lee or Grant.John the Scientisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03467337009577733553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-70167778943937508392011-07-08T08:55:13.240-05:002011-07-08T08:55:13.240-05:00I'm divided on this one. On the one hand, the...I'm divided on this one. On the one hand, there are people like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, etc. who are famous for being famous. They're <em>likely</em> to publish memoirs because they're attention whores and there's an audience that will buy. They're just not likely to tell us any of the really interesting stuff (and I don't doubt they <em>could</em>).<br /><br />On the other hand, Ken Burns' <em>Civil War</em> is a brilliant demonstration of how fascinating and moving a bunch of "nobodies"'s letters home can be.Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00648438549121320566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-6292300586968391452011-07-07T16:25:49.486-05:002011-07-07T16:25:49.486-05:00I agree - thinking back, a lot of the very best me...I agree - thinking back, a lot of the very best memoirs in history were the ones that were incidental, even accidental. There is the little poem about the white cat Pangur Ban, by the owner of the cat, written in Old Irish in the margins of some church latin tome. It tells us all kinds of interesting things, but it's only a few words long, written by a nobody who was bored with copying Latin. Then there are those tapes of folk music performers, interviewed about what they did, in the Folk Music Archives. They are much more interesting than any memoir I've ever read (not that I'm exactly an expert - but that's the point, they're mostly pretty boring).Juliahttp://sustainableoperations.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-8312517642599633922011-07-07T12:05:53.150-05:002011-07-07T12:05:53.150-05:00Sure they do. It's just for a smaller public....Sure they do. It's just for a smaller public.<br /><br />And how else will that smaller public get larger if they don't tell their stories?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-25964457967900691792011-07-07T11:38:28.942-05:002011-07-07T11:38:28.942-05:00I kinda sorta respectfully disagree: not with the ...I kinda sorta respectfully disagree: not with the part about everybody having a story, but with the part about who ought to be writing a memoir.<br /><br />I mean, most private figures don't have <i>nearly</i> as many public gaffes and exposed misdeeds to lie about, rationalize away or paper over. And isn't <i>that</i> what memoirs are all about, really?Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18275812152895151542noreply@blogger.com