RE: [AML] Beck, Leaving the Saints

> From: aml-list-bounces+madair=sisna.com@???
> [mailto:aml-list-bounces+madair=sisna.com@???
] On Behalf Of Thom Duncan
>
>
> Thom Duncan replies to:
>
> >Well then how is a person to judge whether or not someone is a
> >reliable narrator?
>
> Why do we have to, unless the book proclaims itself as THE
> definitive book
> on such-and-such.

> When a person writes a personal memoir, I'm really
> not expecting to
> read anything other than their own experiences.

You don't care whether their experience has any connection to reality? We
expect the events described in a memoir to be colored by the writer's
perceptions, but we also expect their perceptions of what happened to
closely correspond with reality. By calling her work a memoir, Beck is
saying "These things happened to me." But her reported experiences are so
far removed from what others in the same place and time have experienced
that it calls her report into question. If she is truthfully reporting what
she perceives to have experienced, but her perceptions bear little
correspondence with reality, then she is by definition, insane. Or she may
simply be lying.

> >(loved that being pointed out in the Sunstone review) then I
> >do reserve the right to say, "Hey, that doesn't jibe with my
> >experience."
>
> Which doesn't in anyway invalidate Martha's experience. Both
> your and her
> experiences are equally valid.

The problem is that we don't know what she experienced, only what she
reports to have experienced. Beck has given us ample reason to question
either how faithfully her report corresponds to what she actually
experienced, or how closely her perceived experience corresponds with
reality (i.e., either her honesty or her sanity).

MBA
(Morgan B. Adair)