This was stunning. I could hear your voice so clearly throughout.
This line in particular really struck something in me: “I’ve been forced into unimaginably small spaces.”
It made me think of how small we can feel when being invisible is the safest option and how little space there can be for anything else when we have to be that small.
Jenn, I’m just catching up now on my reading, and this is such a terrific Ch. 1 after the prologue - you are so insightful about the difficulty of claiming authority with an “I” - I’ve long appreciated Lopate’s “To Show and to Tell,” but I agree that the idea of being authoritative about one’s own story is hard. The reason I wrote my textbook about first-person journalism was to dig into why a subjective account can be compelling without traditional claims of authority - it comes in admitting what you don’t know, in questioning your premises, in the Montaigne “tests” of it all. I don’t think Phillip Lopate would disagree (I’ve been on panels with him), but for me, creating a solid first-person voice is not about marketing or summarizing yourself - it’s about directing readers to the details you want to see - as you’re doing here. Brava!
O wow thank you! So cool that you presented with the man himself! I'd love to pick his brain about all of this.
It's funny--once I got the go ahead to start, I was lamenting to my partner--gahh I'm so bad at talking about myself, it makes me so uncomfortable, and he was like: Sounds like a perfect Chapter 1 to me. :)
This was stunning. I could hear your voice so clearly throughout.
This line in particular really struck something in me: “I’ve been forced into unimaginably small spaces.”
It made me think of how small we can feel when being invisible is the safest option and how little space there can be for anything else when we have to be that small.
Ahhh thank you! And well said—you’re so right.
Jenn, I’m just catching up now on my reading, and this is such a terrific Ch. 1 after the prologue - you are so insightful about the difficulty of claiming authority with an “I” - I’ve long appreciated Lopate’s “To Show and to Tell,” but I agree that the idea of being authoritative about one’s own story is hard. The reason I wrote my textbook about first-person journalism was to dig into why a subjective account can be compelling without traditional claims of authority - it comes in admitting what you don’t know, in questioning your premises, in the Montaigne “tests” of it all. I don’t think Phillip Lopate would disagree (I’ve been on panels with him), but for me, creating a solid first-person voice is not about marketing or summarizing yourself - it’s about directing readers to the details you want to see - as you’re doing here. Brava!
O wow thank you! So cool that you presented with the man himself! I'd love to pick his brain about all of this.
It's funny--once I got the go ahead to start, I was lamenting to my partner--gahh I'm so bad at talking about myself, it makes me so uncomfortable, and he was like: Sounds like a perfect Chapter 1 to me. :)