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[CCBC-Net] Biography
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From: Pat McCarthy <patmc>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 23:42:26 -0500
Maia,
I don't think all biographies are written by someone with an agenda. I try very hard in my YA biographies to show the strengths and weaknesses of the person. Also, if something is said to be true about the person, but I can't find proof, then I mention it, saying something like...Some people think...., but it hasn't been proven. You say you like autobiographies, but obviously the writer of an autobiography has an agenda...to show himself or herself in the best possible light. As I said, most of us biographers try to show both sides of many issues. Right now, I'm working on a biography of Henry Ford. Probably one of the least factual biographies of him is an autobiography of him, written by ghostwriter Samuel Crowther. Many of Mr. Ford's "memories" are in conflict with memories of other family members and friends. So I will tell what he said about such things, but also what others say. The reader can draw his or her own conclusion. Biographies certainly do a lot to teach about not only the person being written about, but the world in which he or she lived.
----- Original Message -----
From: Maia
To: Subscribers of ccbc-net
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 1:58 AM
Subject: [CCBC-Net] Biography
biography: a written account of another person's life...
I guess I have concerns about the very idea of biography. It seems to me that many authors overlay their own personal agendas upon the reality of their subjects' lives, even using the subject(ed) person strictly to communicate a moral. For example, George Washington becomes a moral lesson about honesty, rather than a real person. Okay, so does it matter? I think it does, because George Washington (and everything he represented and did) then gets lent a moral weight that is out of accordance with the real man -- and the lesson gains a peculiar weight because it is
"history" and therefore "real." True, in fiction and fairy tales characters often take on the weight of lessons and meaning - but to do this to a real person seems to risk a disruption of a child's ability to understand the historical and social dynamics of their environment. George Washington is not a parable.
Also, anyone can write a biography about anyone else, recreating that person's life through their own projections. I find that creepy, at least when the narrative voice is omniscient. Of all the people I know and love, there isn't a single soul whose biography I feel I could write - I could write about my experiences with them, my feelings about them, but to write as if I could define their life would be obscene. Does writing a biography of someone steal from them their ability to define themselves in the world? Or, as I have been told that James Hillman suggests, do biographies strip from individuals the numinous quality that makes them special?
What is it about biography (as opposed to essay, speech, or autobiography) that is so appealing to educators?
Maia
p.s. Perhaps all of this is why I am particularly fond of autobiographies, essays, and letter collections. In these, the author is the subject, and it is clear that the narrative voice is the subject's voice... the dangerously projected omniscience is lost.
--
maia at littlefolktales.org
www.littlefolktales.org
the Spirited Review: www.littlefolktales.org/reviews
Received on Fri 03 Nov 2000 10:42:26 PM CST
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 23:42:26 -0500
Maia,
I don't think all biographies are written by someone with an agenda. I try very hard in my YA biographies to show the strengths and weaknesses of the person. Also, if something is said to be true about the person, but I can't find proof, then I mention it, saying something like...Some people think...., but it hasn't been proven. You say you like autobiographies, but obviously the writer of an autobiography has an agenda...to show himself or herself in the best possible light. As I said, most of us biographers try to show both sides of many issues. Right now, I'm working on a biography of Henry Ford. Probably one of the least factual biographies of him is an autobiography of him, written by ghostwriter Samuel Crowther. Many of Mr. Ford's "memories" are in conflict with memories of other family members and friends. So I will tell what he said about such things, but also what others say. The reader can draw his or her own conclusion. Biographies certainly do a lot to teach about not only the person being written about, but the world in which he or she lived.
----- Original Message -----
From: Maia
To: Subscribers of ccbc-net
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 1:58 AM
Subject: [CCBC-Net] Biography
biography: a written account of another person's life...
I guess I have concerns about the very idea of biography. It seems to me that many authors overlay their own personal agendas upon the reality of their subjects' lives, even using the subject(ed) person strictly to communicate a moral. For example, George Washington becomes a moral lesson about honesty, rather than a real person. Okay, so does it matter? I think it does, because George Washington (and everything he represented and did) then gets lent a moral weight that is out of accordance with the real man -- and the lesson gains a peculiar weight because it is
"history" and therefore "real." True, in fiction and fairy tales characters often take on the weight of lessons and meaning - but to do this to a real person seems to risk a disruption of a child's ability to understand the historical and social dynamics of their environment. George Washington is not a parable.
Also, anyone can write a biography about anyone else, recreating that person's life through their own projections. I find that creepy, at least when the narrative voice is omniscient. Of all the people I know and love, there isn't a single soul whose biography I feel I could write - I could write about my experiences with them, my feelings about them, but to write as if I could define their life would be obscene. Does writing a biography of someone steal from them their ability to define themselves in the world? Or, as I have been told that James Hillman suggests, do biographies strip from individuals the numinous quality that makes them special?
What is it about biography (as opposed to essay, speech, or autobiography) that is so appealing to educators?
Maia
p.s. Perhaps all of this is why I am particularly fond of autobiographies, essays, and letter collections. In these, the author is the subject, and it is clear that the narrative voice is the subject's voice... the dangerously projected omniscience is lost.
--
maia at littlefolktales.org
www.littlefolktales.org
the Spirited Review: www.littlefolktales.org/reviews
Received on Fri 03 Nov 2000 10:42:26 PM CST
