I cannot agree more with the argument. having wrote the story that my deceased wife would have want to communicate to her friends and family ( and to me) I thought it was probable that what I poured out of me and my grief could be probable. Therefore, I wrote a second part to the book, which was what I remember, think, theorized, confessed, like a probe to her part and the the main argument : did we have and lived Love together? ( Therefore the title "The friend of my mind A love story - influenced by Toni Morrison in "Beloved') . And, I cannot avoid that people will want to categorize it as a memoir but I know it's probable, not true; as a fiction, it's a fiction as you understand it, neither as I understand it, which is "we only write stories that we tell to ourselves". Novel, memoir, auto fiction, the same ; poetry might be different. That's it. Thank you for this post and I will look for more.
"I think it would be better if we didn’t genre-icize ourselves to death over our writing or the writing of others." The best point in the piece. Explaining genres is like explaining why a joke is funny. BTW: I love the idea of writing a biography of your father who no one knows.
I cannot agree more with the argument. having wrote the story that my deceased wife would have want to communicate to her friends and family ( and to me) I thought it was probable that what I poured out of me and my grief could be probable. Therefore, I wrote a second part to the book, which was what I remember, think, theorized, confessed, like a probe to her part and the the main argument : did we have and lived Love together? ( Therefore the title "The friend of my mind A love story - influenced by Toni Morrison in "Beloved') . And, I cannot avoid that people will want to categorize it as a memoir but I know it's probable, not true; as a fiction, it's a fiction as you understand it, neither as I understand it, which is "we only write stories that we tell to ourselves". Novel, memoir, auto fiction, the same ; poetry might be different. That's it. Thank you for this post and I will look for more.
"I think it would be better if we didn’t genre-icize ourselves to death over our writing or the writing of others." The best point in the piece. Explaining genres is like explaining why a joke is funny. BTW: I love the idea of writing a biography of your father who no one knows.
Thank you, Tom. And I appreciate the encouragement for bio of my father. It is happening!