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Getting Personal in Public
The Moth storytelling series, which includes people telling true stories on stage without notes, traveled to Portland recently and the show sold out in a matter of hours. A glance at Powell's bookshelves will reveal a wide-ranging array of personal stories told in zines, essay collections and full-length books. One of the local bookseller's employees recently added his own narrative to the store's collection.
Just when it seemed like the genre was becoming impossibly oversaturated, Beau Breedlove announced he'll be chronicling his affair with Portland Mayor Sam Adams in a forthcoming book. Some would say Breedlove's motivation for writing his personal story is rooted in greed or an insatiable desire for fame, but what about storytellers with less notoriety? What motivates them to stand up and share intimate details from their personal lives with strangers? What drives people to listen to or read their stories?
Have you ever shared a personal story in a public way? Why did you do it? How did you feel afterwards? Have you attended a live storytelling event or read a memoir you loved (or hated)? What drew you in? What made you uncomfortable?
GUESTS:
- Sarah Hoopes: Author of a blog about her teenage diaries, which she also reads onstage at Mortified events in Portland
- Kevin Sampsell: Author of the recently-published memoir A Common Pornography
- Ben Yagoda: Author of Memoir - A History and professor of English and journalism at the University of Delaware
Tagged as: literature · memoir · performance
Photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³ / Creative Commons
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I think it's all about SHARING. Reading other people's stories just gives you strength. Sure, there are plenty of vanity stories wrapped up in memoirs, but the best and most inspirational stories are honest-down-to-earth outpourings.
I've recently completed a memoir and have published several personal essays. Knowing people are laughing or crying as a result of my writing makes my happy times better, and my sad times more bearable because I know I can share.
I'm currently seeking agent representation for my multimedia memoir. Dozens of documentary style videos will be available to my readers. I call it a pet and teacher memoir wrapped up into a travel adventure. Please visit http://thechinproject.wordpress.com for a look.
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In regards to Mr. Sampsells book. While most teenagers had a couple of porn mags under the mattress, he had a suitcase full of them. If that isn't inspirational then I don't know what is.
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There is a significant difference between personal storytelling and the written memoir. Storytelling is a performance, with instant feedback, instant praise, and an instant audience. It requires not just a story, but also the added complication of a performer, perhaps, wishing to be a star. This type of verbal 'memoir' has higher odds of being ego driven and self-reverential. The medium isn't cutting-edge progress, it is a gimmicky regression---that is in-line with our reality obsessed world, constantly attempting to elevate the pedestrian banality of human life into shameless, tasteless, entertainment.
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My favorite memoir - The Tendar Bar by JR Moehringer. Other life paths fascinate me and I enjoy learning about other people.
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I started a blog after my first son was stillborn. I did it to help my family and friends understand my grieving process, even though they lived far away. It ended up helping me work through my grief. It connected us and allowed us to have a conversation about things we probably would never have talked about. I also found it helpful to read blogs from several other parents who had lost children. The idea that I was not alone in my grief helped my healing process.
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Sharing your story is a way to help other people realize they are not alone in this world. To read about others' problems, achievements, deep dark secrets and quirky idiosyncrisies, can make a reader realize that perhaps their life is not as "screwed up" as they might imagine it to be.
I blog about pie baking, which I started because pie makes people happy. But since my 43-yr-old husband died suddenly and unexpectedly 6 months ago I started writing about my grief -- and how pie can help heal that. Surprisingly, since I started sharing these deeper, extremely heartfelt stories of my pain, the traffic to my blog increased exponentially. Now strangers write in comments and thank me for sharing. People seem to hunger for more of this intimate sharing -- well, that and pie.
(My blog is http://theworldneedsmorepie.blogspot.com/)
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I recently read my diaries from 1987-89 at the February Mortified show (which quickly sold out two nights in a row).
I didn't know why I wanted to do it but I was compelled- even obsessed. Mortified's tag line is that it's "freakishly therapeutic" and that was certainly true for me.
Writing, reading and finding the humor in a time that is typically painful and angst filled, has healed me differently than years of therapy ever could. I also think when we listen to our own stories or others like Sarah or Kevin, or David Sedaris or any of the Mortified performers, we come to peace with our humanity- ours, yours, theirs... we really are not all that different from each other- we are all just funny, freaky, awesome human beings.
For years I have been inspired to write my own memoir; so I am really happy to hear from both Sarah and Kevin. They are inspiring me!
Thank you so much for doing this show!
Regina
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It's one-sided. Uninterrupted conversation, except, problem, it's a monologue, not talking with someone, talking at, at an audience. Kind of like 'me' getting to run my mouth, on these pages, without being held accountable for much of anything I say---sometimes you get challenged, get feedback, but it is a trickle. Self-indulgence? Is there something I am missing? This all began with Mr. Duchamp, and onwards with Mr. Warhol---endless commentary on the tradition of culture, deconstructing, without reconstructing the form. Shatter the illusions, art doesn't need creation it exists in the everyday---but if everything is art, then what is the point? Can everyone's life be equally interesting? Do you have to muck it up to have a good story to share? What if your boring? No rape, no molestation, no tragedy? Well sit down---we don't want to hear it. We created fiction, because, well, it is a craft, it is a creation, that levels the playing field of reality---it allows even an unremarkable existence, or life, to manufacture something of interest, beauty, rage and anything else you can imagine.
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I recently saw Michel Gondry's (Director, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind) documentary film Thorn in my Heart. The subject of the documentary was Gondry's Aunt, and peripherally her son's homosexuality and the rift it had caused in their family. Adding to the atmosphere, Gondry was in the audience that night and answering questions at the end. It was slightly uncomfortable watching Gondry's Aunt describe her son as a thorn in her heart, but Gondry masked those feelings of discomfort with interludes which allowed the audience to create distance between themselves and the tale unfolding. The audience sensed the sentitive nature of the topic, and wondered how his cousin had become involved in the project at all. As it turned out he was responsible for the source of the interludes, a functioning model train set. I appreciated the delicate nuances of the film, which as he aimed to do, capture life.
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would love to hear what local author Cheryl Strayed has to say on this topic re: Torch (fiction teetering on memoir) and her upcoming memoir WILD (which is being billed as the next Eat, Pray, Love) THANKS.