Memoir and Truth

1
Memoir and Truth

• the purpose of writing is to enhance mystery,
  not solve it.
• -Tim OBrien

2
Does a story need to be a work of non-fiction to
be a work of truth?
3

• Does the fact that Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or
  (insert a favorite FICTIONAL novel here) are not
  true make them any less amazing?

4
Read the Good Form excerpt from The Things They
Carried
What is the difference between happening-truth
and story-truth?

• Do you agree with OBrien that story-truth is
  truer sometimes than happening-truth?

When OBrien says,What stories can do, I guess,
is make things present (OBrien 172), what does
he mean?
5
From Good Form- The Things They Carried

• I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to
  know why story-truth is truer sometimes than
  happening-truth (OBrien 171)
• I can look at things I never looked at. I can
  attach faces to grief and love and pity and God.
  I can be brave. I can make myself feel again
  (OBrien 172).
• Daddy, tell the truth, Kathleen can say, did
  you ever kill anybody? And I can say, honestly,
  Of course not.
• Or I can say, honestly, Yes (OBrien 180).

6

• Do you believe the emotions and feelings that
  were felt as a soldier in the Vietnam War have
  been accurately communicated through The Things
  They Carried?

7
What are examples of this in our society (stories
that are untrue/unrealistic, but we believe them
anyway)?
8
Metafiction

• Fictional writing which self-consciously and
  systematically draws attention to its status as
  an artifact in order to pose questions about the
  relationship between fiction and reality
• Patricia Waugh, Metafiction The Theory and
  Practice  of Self-Conscious Fiction.New York
  Methuen, 1984.

9
Verisimilitude

• The quality of realism in something

10
Melodrama

• Exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters
  and interpersonal (between individuals) conflicts

11
Artful Dodge Interview A Conversation with Tim
OBrien

• What do you think is OBriens opinion of fiction
  vs. nonfiction.
• Was it OBriens goal to share the truth in its
  entirety in the novel? It not, what was the
  purpose of his book?
• Do you think a books success depends on whether
  or not the story was real or fabricated? Explain
  your answer.
•