Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Truth About Lying
When is it okay to lie? In autobiography and memoir, there has to be some fictional creation to fill in for memory lapse, some omission to smooth out the story, some changing of detail to protect privacy...but when is enough enough? Looking at all the fact checking that Jamaica Kincaid has undergone, all the interview questions about her fiction being autobiography and her autobiography really being fiction, the significance of this question is readily apparent. It's significance is not lost on Kincaid because she intentionally draws the readers attention to facts and muddied truth. What is it about her that makes the reader give her permission to alter the truth or pretend the fiction is not truth? Kincaid is portrayed as a young woman who has grown up in a country that had very little resources; this idea of a success story is appealing to an American reading audience; it's the rags to riches story-even if the riches are moderate. It's the proof that with wit and will, you can overcome obstacles in life. Kincaid carries with her this embodiment of the success story, even as she resist it. She criticizes the United States but characterizes the United Kingdom as comparatively worse. One reason is that in the US you are allowed to reinvent yourself whereas in the UK you always must deal with the limiting pressures of class. Kincaid refers to the UK as "the old suitcase" meaning that nothing fresh or possible can happen there, change is slow. Also. Kincaid has stated that its acceptable to criticize the United States within the country because there is a tradition of self[-examination there. Further, Kincaid fits within the model of one who has a right to confront colonial systems and the historical aftershocks because she grew up under a British colonial education system,which makes her a suitable spokesperson within the genre. Her biographical facts lend credibility to -her tactics, the reader questions her purpose for self-reference? Carte blanc permission is given to change the details, shift the names, invent facts because: She must have a reason for the disparities in her facts. She's confusing on purpose. What is her purpose?
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3 comments:
Every time we try to describe what happened there are gaping holes in our narrative that the reader or listener has to fill and they are trained through personal experience (similar or what they think is similar events have happened to them) and by narratives. So truth or the level of possible truth also depends on the skill of the listener or reader. How good are we at imagining someone else's world?
On the other hand, if you think of truth as representative of reality, as we often do with statistics, fiction might be closer than fact, in the sense of the saying that fact is stranger than fiction. Most facts are not stranger than fiction.
And then if you want to be read, you have to be a little strange or describe the common so that it suddenly seems new. You have to make people see it as a new side of truth.
So her autobiography is fiction, what is she trying to hide from her real life, is she or she is not trying to disguise her true self? What would you call an autobiography that's fiction? How interesting!!Sometimes fact is too painful and we camouflage it with stories, we create stories, I like that saying of calling someone who lies, a person that creates stories, so Jamaica Kincaid created a story of her life. I had a friend like that,she fantasized so much about her life.
Thanks for your comments Mark and Energiz-er! I'm still thinking about what you wrote!
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