24 Writing Family History and Memoir

25 Write as Well as You Can

Expressions

Suddenly no remembered episode was too squalid, no family too dysfunctional, to be trotted out for the titillation of the masses on cable TV and in magazines and books.

squalid? ??1.(of places and living conditions 處所及生活環境) very dirty and unpleasant

骯臟的；邋遢的【SYN】 filthy?

?squalid housing骯臟的房屋

2. (of situations or activities 情況或活動) involving low moral standards or dishonest behaviour

這里意思? 道德敗壞的；丑惡的；卑鄙的??【SYN】 sordid?

?It was a squalid affair involving prostitutes and drugs.那是一樁涉及娼妓與毒品的丑事

and to bash everyone who had ever done them wrong.

bash? ?這里意思是to criticize sb / sth strongly嚴厲批評

?Bashing politicians is normal practice in the press.嚴厲批判政治人物乃是新聞界常事。

延伸：bash sth out大量粗制濫造【SYN】 knock out :

?She bashed out about four books a year.她一年大概炮制出四本書。

Thoughts

Remember this when you write your own family history.?Don’t try to be a “writer.”

Your product is you. The crucial transaction in memoir and personal history is the transaction between you and your remembered experiences and emotions.

---回憶錄應該以孩子時候的視角寫，還是以現在成人的視角寫呢 ?

1.作者認為The strongest memoirs are those that preserve the unity of a remembered time and place。保證記憶中時間與地點的統一性

2.另一種選擇是to write about your?younger years from the wiser perspective of your older years—that memoir will have its own integrity.這種選擇也會它有獨特的完整性

But these are two different kinds of writing. Choose one.

---如何處理寫到的家人的隱私呢 ?

不要事先就擔憂這個問題。先寫再說。如果是只寫給家人看的家庭史，就無所謂了。但如果要給外人看或者出版，就要給家人看其中提到他們的頁碼——這是起碼的尊重。

---最后，這是你寫的故事。

假如有家人對你的回憶錄不能同意，他們可以寫自己的回憶錄。and it will be just as valid as yours; nobody has a monopoly on the shared past.

是啊，寫回憶錄涉及了記憶的提取和重建，所以作者難免都是主觀的，而這同時也是being yourself.

---作者又提到了the memoir-crazed 1990s.? 90年代的回憶錄熱，但是很多作者using the form to wallow in self-revelation and self-pity and to bash everyone who had ever done them wrong.?

Writing was out and whining was in.?這太可悲了！

所以，不要用回憶錄來發泄過去的傷痛，排解憤恨。畢竟，90年代出版的回憶錄中大家仍記得的是 那些寫出愛和原諒的書籍。盡管他們很多人過去充滿很多悲慘與痛苦，但是這些作者讓我們知道，我們并非受害者。我們的家人避免不了犯錯誤，但是我們無怨無悔地繼續走下去我們自己的人生。We come from a tribe of fallible people and we have survived without resentment to get on with our lives.寫回憶錄對他們來說已變成一種自我治愈的行為。這才是真正讓人欣賞的回憶錄作品！

作者也說到了如何處理各種材料，又是各種decisions或是注意的事項，其實和上一節差不了太多，就不多說了。

記住：關注小處。Your biggest stories will often have less to do with their subject than with their significance—not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation affected you and shaped the person you became.

你最大的故事常與其重要性相關，而非題材——不是你在某個場合做了什么，而是那個場合如何影響了你，并且塑造成了現在的你。

最后就是——Then all you have to do is put the pieces together.

作者原本不是非要當作家的，并沒有那種突然就想當作家的奇想時刻。他原本可能隨父親的期望跟著父親做生意的，但是戰后返家不久 ，他就去了一家報業，而且他父親大度地接受了。

不過，關于寫作，作者從小受到父親和母親的影響。

母親的影響——重要的是寫作本身，而不是載體。

父親的影響——a bone-deep belief that quality is its own reward

后來寫作的過程中又有了很多的想法，比如：

Besides wanting to write as well as possible, I wanted to write as entertainingly as possible.

Yet to defend what you’ve written is a sign that you are?alive.

作者還寫了和編輯的關系，ideally the relationship between a writer and an editor should be one of negotiation and trust.