Truth in Memoirs

A Million Little Pieces... oh, how you have betrayed me so. Heartbroken and lied to, I don't think I'll ever read again! Oh me! Oh my! What travesties I've endured so innocently and unknowing... why cruel world have you done this to me?

            Ok, so really do I feel as if my world is crumbling around me and everything I’ve ever known now falls into question? No. But, do I feel as if I’ve been taken advantage of and duped? Yeah, I do. Creative licensing comes to point when major plot lines are changed in a memoir, but do I feel as though James Frey needed a publicly televised spanking from Oprah? NO! Just because a few details in his book are not real doesn’t mean that it’s not a good book anymore or that he didn’t overcome a major battle with drug addiction.  I will defend Frey because his book moved me in a way a lot of books never have, his humiliation, his grievances, his passion, his drive, his love, and his courage are what I loved, not that he hung out with a mobster at lunch and that he had an arrest in Ohio, or that he snorted glue.

            Why make such a large extravaganza about his details when it was his story he put out there so bravely. When he submitted the piece to publishers as a fiction piece and was rejected several times over, he then submitted it as a memoir because for the most part, it was. I don’t feel as though James Frey has wronged me in any way—he has touched my heart and his novel, memoir or no, is still one of the best books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

Readicide

While Gallagher’s opinion that schools are ruining books is correct, I do not believe that adding genre fiction into the curriculum of books will be effective in increasing children’s love of books.  It is the way children are being taught to analyze books that is truly killing their love of them.  They should not have to grapple at their pens and post-its every time they wish to read onto the next chapter in the book—they should learn to appreciate the novel for what they interpret it to be.  Over-analyzation over the plot and the “hidden message” in books is tiring.  No wonder they scoff at lack-luster thrill derived from books when the teacher tells them their opinion is not correct and continues on preparing them for the next test.  Over-night reading of complicated texts, such as Macbeth, would benefit from book circles and the help from their peers; reading Twilight is a cop out of learning to read classical pieces.

Agreeably though, I do believe that every once in a while a break from older literature is necessary for children because they must be taught to other types of books besides literary fiction.  Is it right to shove old-timey novels down their throats when there are plenty of other genres out there that children can make connections with?  Teachers often stick to the curriculum they were taught in school and I believe that English teachers are the worst perpetrators.  Of the hundreds of novel genres, the school only teaches one; how would it be if their science and history classes were the same?  English is become a sorry excuse for academic subject when all around them the times and devices are changing.  Left in the dust, English class has become a daunting subject to learn due to the lack of teaching ability and change the curriculum needs to see to garner children’s interest.

Da Vinci Trailer