From: Robin Smith <smithr>
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 13:29:44 -0500

An excellent question, isn't it?

All autobiographies are biased and it is up to the reader, if he or she is old enough, to weigh those biases in his or her mind. It is also very important for historical (as opposed to personal, I guess) autobiographies to be placed in the context of history. If the child is younger, the work of putting it into historical context falls to the adults in the child's life.
 
 I teach many children whose ancestors were the earliest white settlers of Tennessee. Many of the historic homes of the area bear their names. This means, necessarily, that most of their forebears held slaves. This is a fact. This is an uncomfortable fact for the little people in my class, but it is one that they need to understand on some level. But it is the power of the autobiography that makes these difficult times (and aren't all times difficult?) come alive and allows us to understand the history of our people and all people.

I was glad to read someone mention Looking Back again. This intensely personal autobiography has some of the very same power of the historical ones. It is certainly set in a time and a place and the time and place clearly lead us to the writer that Lois Lowry has become. I read this in one sitting and was moved to tears. I kept remembering watching her read a chapter from her newest Sam book 2 years ago. The listeners were laughing and so was she...and this was just a few years after the most terrible loss a mother can suffer. How could she do it?

"Looking back together, telling our stories to one another, we learn how to be on our own."-Lois Lowry

I think this can be said about all the books mentioned so far this month.
        -----Original Message---- From: Maia [SMTP:maia at houndsofheaven.com]
        Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 1999 10:21 AM
        To: ccbc-net at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu
        Subject: Re: Autobiography

        First, I suppose I wasn't very clear as to *why* Monica's posting struck me as
        that fresh breeze... after all, it's not a particularly cheerful topic.
        Rather, it's because as usual, Monica seems to bring a balance and
        thoughtfulness to each topic. Being an Irish-American spitfire myself, I know
        how easily I can become intense about issues close to my heart. Somehow
        Monica seems to be able to address 'the big ones' without becoming either too
        fired up or blas?, and I respect that immensely.
        ...
        Second, a thought on autobiographies in general: It's hard, isn't it, to see
        the balance between representing a culture and speaking as a individual person
        with foibles and failings? Recently I was at a social gathering where two
        people were discussing a memoir by an Irish-American. The tone seemed to me
        to be "Oh, so now I understand the Irish immigrant experience." I almost had
        to leave the room. Part of me was annoyed with the author, but after all, the
        book wasn't causing the trite response. I expect that the memoir was valid
        for the author. It was the automatic extension to _all_ Irish immigrants that
        made me angry. So here's a question - when addressing a youthful audience by
        means of autobiography, diary or memoir, how much balance is the author's
        responsibility, and how much belongs to the readership and its guiding adults?

        Maia
Received on Tue 06 Apr 1999 01:29:44 PM CDT