I'm grateful for this introduction, Felix. Without knowing more about Ernaux, I can neither agree or disagree with your analysis, but I do appreciate that line about combing everything for literature. Ted Kooser said a former girlfriend accused him of something similar: "You're always looking for a poem in everything!" To which Kooser ruefully grinned, in recollection, "And she was kind of right."
My friend John Struloeff, who teaches at Pepperdine, wrote a fantastic essay that I believe is still unpublished, but that I used every time I taught a memoir course. It is titled "Learning to See," and it follows John's first foray into creative nonfiction after having built a body of work in fiction. The rules were different, because he couldn't make everything up, so he had to learn how to look at his life differently to locate those story-worthy seams in his past. I should maybe ask him if I could post it here or on my site -- it's really great.
Kooser sounds like a fellow who had 20/20 eyesight, even if the oculists disagree. Your friend definitely has a good point: seeing is important. I personally like to recommend journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, who was able to see very remarkable things in his travels, mostly in Africa.
While I don't find the term creative nonfiction endearing, it is a great way to unpack certain episodes of life. And it does, of course, have that challenge: I remember a piece from Tin House ten years ago about the author's father that stuck with me. The genre can certainly hold its own. Though I would posit that the main difference between fiction and fantasy is that fiction is already something you can't make up, the way dreams in Inception are never truly separate from reality. We think of Gregor Samsa the insect as fantastical, which he is: but that was also Kafka's reality, which is part of the reason we think of The Metamorphosis as fiction and not fantasy. In any case, I hope you convince him to publish the essay. I'd love to read it!
Thanks! It's a pleasure to be a part of it. Loving the Substack experience so far!
Felix, I'd not heard of Ernaux, either, until she won the Nobel and I began with _A Simple Passion_ that is a brief exploration of obsession, in one sense. I read it in one sitting and then did feel the need to return to it. I've wanted to discuss this novel with WV Buluma who wrote here recently: https://innerlifecollaborative.substack.com/p/archiving-haunted-silences and who is also exploring Ernaux. Will you be discussing _A Simple Passion_ in your series? I'm so glad Sam found you for us—and that you found my personal site--because as I've said, we are bound to connect. --Mary
Thank you for the kind words! I actually plan on exploring all her "fiction" works, if time permits, (I quote fiction because of the autofiction classification) and Simple Passion will be next. (in a week or two) The series is intended to zone in on the cream of the crop and make sense of her output. While she wrote over twenty books most of them, like Simple Passion, appear to be short. Naturally, I plan on exploring other Laureates and authors. One obstacle contemporary writers face relative to classic authors is a lack of "household name" classics. What is Ernaux's David Copperfield, or Les Miserables? The French might have a novel in mind, but for the rest of us it's unclear.
Thanks also for the subscription, and for spreading the word!
I'm grateful for this introduction, Felix. Without knowing more about Ernaux, I can neither agree or disagree with your analysis, but I do appreciate that line about combing everything for literature. Ted Kooser said a former girlfriend accused him of something similar: "You're always looking for a poem in everything!" To which Kooser ruefully grinned, in recollection, "And she was kind of right."
My friend John Struloeff, who teaches at Pepperdine, wrote a fantastic essay that I believe is still unpublished, but that I used every time I taught a memoir course. It is titled "Learning to See," and it follows John's first foray into creative nonfiction after having built a body of work in fiction. The rules were different, because he couldn't make everything up, so he had to learn how to look at his life differently to locate those story-worthy seams in his past. I should maybe ask him if I could post it here or on my site -- it's really great.
Glad you're part of this community now, too!
Kooser sounds like a fellow who had 20/20 eyesight, even if the oculists disagree. Your friend definitely has a good point: seeing is important. I personally like to recommend journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, who was able to see very remarkable things in his travels, mostly in Africa.
While I don't find the term creative nonfiction endearing, it is a great way to unpack certain episodes of life. And it does, of course, have that challenge: I remember a piece from Tin House ten years ago about the author's father that stuck with me. The genre can certainly hold its own. Though I would posit that the main difference between fiction and fantasy is that fiction is already something you can't make up, the way dreams in Inception are never truly separate from reality. We think of Gregor Samsa the insect as fantastical, which he is: but that was also Kafka's reality, which is part of the reason we think of The Metamorphosis as fiction and not fantasy. In any case, I hope you convince him to publish the essay. I'd love to read it!
Thanks! It's a pleasure to be a part of it. Loving the Substack experience so far!
Felix, I'd not heard of Ernaux, either, until she won the Nobel and I began with _A Simple Passion_ that is a brief exploration of obsession, in one sense. I read it in one sitting and then did feel the need to return to it. I've wanted to discuss this novel with WV Buluma who wrote here recently: https://innerlifecollaborative.substack.com/p/archiving-haunted-silences and who is also exploring Ernaux. Will you be discussing _A Simple Passion_ in your series? I'm so glad Sam found you for us—and that you found my personal site--because as I've said, we are bound to connect. --Mary
Forgot to say: I'll be sure to check out Bulumas content!
Thank you for the kind words! I actually plan on exploring all her "fiction" works, if time permits, (I quote fiction because of the autofiction classification) and Simple Passion will be next. (in a week or two) The series is intended to zone in on the cream of the crop and make sense of her output. While she wrote over twenty books most of them, like Simple Passion, appear to be short. Naturally, I plan on exploring other Laureates and authors. One obstacle contemporary writers face relative to classic authors is a lack of "household name" classics. What is Ernaux's David Copperfield, or Les Miserables? The French might have a novel in mind, but for the rest of us it's unclear.
Thanks also for the subscription, and for spreading the word!
You earned "spreading the word". xo