To write or not to write...

In The Problem with Memoirs, Neil Genzlinger writes that there are too many memoirs, that in our world of "oversharing" people believe they all have something new to contribute. He complains that too many people think they have something important to say when little to they know that most of the ordeals they have gone through is not new or original. I agree with Genzlinger to a point - perhaps our society has a tendency to divulge everything little everything about them. The lines between what is private and public have blurred so much that I'm sometimes am left wondering how much information, grief, or happiness to share not only on social media sites like blogger or Facebook but in my daily life as well. In a way it's liberating to be able to share trauma or happiness with people. They will surprise you in ways you can't anticipate either with compassion or unintended insensitivity. As I have experienced tragedy a couple of times this summer and early fall, I admit that I have thought about writing:  not necessarily a memoir to but published, but something to gather my thoughts, to capture a precious memory, and to reflect on the conflicting emotions that batter me on a day to day basis.

After telling my students they have something important to say and assign them to write a memoir, I read Genzlinger's article and I'm stopped cold. How do I convince them to write a memoir now? Writing is such a personal experience that one can easily be scared about the process. Yes, a lot of memoirs likely should not be published. I'm sure several do repeat several of the same experiences, and talented, graceful writers should shine through above the cliched, repetitive writers. Yet, as a writing instructor, I realize that writing can help people achieve closure or gain perspective on their situations. Writing helps us discover things about ourselves that sit just below the surface by following meandering thoughts. Once we start, we cannot always anticipate where we'll end up, how we'll feel afterwards - at peace or more conflicted - but we do need to keep writing and keep exploring. We do need to have patience with ourselves and, as George Eliot has written, with "the makeshift of our human thinking." I hope that people who read Genzlinger's article will not despair and avoid writing altogether but continue to write until they find their purpose and voice.

Interconnectedness in Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad

At the start of each summer vacation, I look forward to tackling my list of books to read. One of my favorites this summer was Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, the Pulitzer Prize winner from last year. The book amazed me with its clever intersection of plot lines, incorporation of pop culture, and how our communication is changing rapidly with new technologies. The music and the digital world -- the internet, smartphones, the new texting lingo -- become a driving metaphor for the book and the connections between the characters.

While the first chapter begins with Sasha, a 30-year old young woman living in New York and battling her stealing compulsion, the subsequent chapters move onto another character loosely connected to Sasha. With each chapter we meet a new character who is tied to others throughout the book, although loosely connected. As we meet the various characters in vastly different periods of their lives, we realize how they are all connected and that a minor character in one individual's past can make an important impact in years to come. Similar to surfing the web, the book allows us to delve into paths of inquiry. We might start on one page, follow links that interest us but may stray away from the original thought process. Eventually, we get so far off of the original subject, we have to stop and ask - "how is this all related?" As we trace our thought process, we begin to understand the complexity of our inquiry and the interconnectedness of ideas.

Using the visual-driven digital age as the background of one chapter, Egan creates a chapter of a young girl (Sasha's eventual daughter) who shares her perspective in powerpoint slides. The above link gives a small sampling. She visualizes connections between ideas by graphing them. We know what she is trying to say without her spelling everything out for us. The emotions and tensions she feels in her family life are better conveyed through visuals than words.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a masterfully written novel that captures the enthusiasm and wonder of music and digital age all while delving into the powerful intersections between people and emotions.