Lately I've been writing personal essays, a new form for me, and twice last week I let worries over the feelings of others creep into my editing decisions. It's hard enough to edit when your motives are purely literary. In an odd sort of punctuation to these episodes, I happened on an essay by David Sedaris, "Repeat After Me," in which he repeats a story his sister has told him in confidence. The particulars of the story aren't important; the point is that Sedaris is telling it. The essay is about betrayal, and the guilt that often goes along with writing personal stories. In the last scene, Sedaris imagines himself in his sister’s kitchen, chanting while his sister's parrot listens, teaching the parrot to say, "Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me."blue parrot photo: JT Reby / jtdc.files.wordpress.com.
1 comment:
This is one of the eternal questions for a writer, isn't it? What and how much I have the right to reveal about another person. It's the reason why I often feel freer in fiction, even when I'm dealing with a theme that could be handled either way. Wish I had good universal answers of the kind that could be taped to one's computer. What I tend to find myself stuck with is some version of 'do unto others...'
Joyce Allen
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