Читать книгу Constructing the Self. Essays on Southern Life-Writing онлайн

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Now, in an attempt to capture autobiographical experiences, a writer makes choices—what to include; what to leave out; how to write about particular kinds of things, especially if they are embarrassing or make you look like a fool; and how to treat the countless characters who are going to people the volume with you. The decisions include such questions as: Do I really want to paint Great Aunt Jessie as the witch she was? Of course, she was a witch, . . . but, if I say that, her many descendants will be pissed off. That is, they will be pissed off IF they read the book.

Let me share a brief aside here—When Summer Snow was published, the North Carolina Writers Network asked me to come to Wilmington and talk about it. I gave my presentation the title “How to Write About YOUR Life Without Pissing Off Your Relatives.” They politely informed me that I could not use the phrase “pissing off” in my title because they would have to print it in their brochure for advance publicity, and they could not do that. If writers, scholars, and presumably sane intellectual people in 2003 wanted to censor a mere phrase, then imagine how much more Great Aunt Jessie’s relatives would want to censor how she might be presented for public viewing in something that I would write.