Triple Transcription
Jan. 7th, 2008 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterAnother excerpt from Life is a Miracle, from a panel discussion held by the Authors Guild and Authors Guild Foundation entitled, "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?" (Oct. 19, 1998, New York City):
Janna Malamud Smith...said this: "When rationalizing their exposure of others, writers tend to claim two values as having overriding worth. One is the aesthetic goal of telling the story well. There's often a feeling that writing beautifully is an ultimate good, that telling a tale very well compensates any harm it might do to its subjects. The second virtue writers tend to honor is outing the truth. We take seriously the job of looking behind hypocrisy and social facade....We like to believe there is a version of the truth that is superior and that we can state it. These are serious premises....But I think they thrive best when they are occasionally pruned by opposing values....The reason people feel betrayed when they find themselves in people's books is this: Intimacy...works because you are allowed to do things in a friendship, in a love relationship, that you can't do in public. So when the private things intimacy has allowed you to expose are suddenly made public, that is a legitimate reason for a feeling of profound betrayal....The fact is that betrayals are a real thing.
(pp. 81-82)
Perhaps that is why I am primarily concerned with my own doings. For me, the trouble with reading Berry's writings is they contain so many ideas I'd like to think through further so that they easily overwhelm me. I suspect I'll end up purchasing the books so I can mark them up and then abandon them on my bookshelf to collect dust.
Janna Malamud Smith...said this: "When rationalizing their exposure of others, writers tend to claim two values as having overriding worth. One is the aesthetic goal of telling the story well. There's often a feeling that writing beautifully is an ultimate good, that telling a tale very well compensates any harm it might do to its subjects. The second virtue writers tend to honor is outing the truth. We take seriously the job of looking behind hypocrisy and social facade....We like to believe there is a version of the truth that is superior and that we can state it. These are serious premises....But I think they thrive best when they are occasionally pruned by opposing values....The reason people feel betrayed when they find themselves in people's books is this: Intimacy...works because you are allowed to do things in a friendship, in a love relationship, that you can't do in public. So when the private things intimacy has allowed you to expose are suddenly made public, that is a legitimate reason for a feeling of profound betrayal....The fact is that betrayals are a real thing.
(pp. 81-82)
Perhaps that is why I am primarily concerned with my own doings. For me, the trouble with reading Berry's writings is they contain so many ideas I'd like to think through further so that they easily overwhelm me. I suspect I'll end up purchasing the books so I can mark them up and then abandon them on my bookshelf to collect dust.
