Thursday, February 6, 2014

Post 8: Truth In Memoir


Memoir- a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation.  I do not believe that a memoir has to be completely true.  Nowhere in this definition does it mention a memoir containing factual evidence of the events occurred.  Therefore, if the story is somewhat stretched, it shouldn’t be declassified as a memoir. 

The last part of the sentence states that a memoir is based off of personal observation.  The writing piece is seen through the eyes of the writer.  The writer perceives the events in their own unique way.   The reader doesn’t have the right to know if the writer’s perception was wrong, it shouldn’t matter.  The story does not change. 

I believe there should be a point in a non-fiction book where it is fully backed up with evidence.  Mr. Coates’ example was with a medical book.  You want that knowledge to be fully backed up, or else a possible operation might go terribly wrong.  If there is no label on that medical book as non-fiction, then some bum of a writer might make a bs medical book, just to make some money.  That is where the line should be drawn; if it effects the life of another. 

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