24 Writing Family History and Memoir

25 Write as Well as You Can

Expressions

Suddenly no remembered episode was too squalid, no family too dysfunctional, to be trotted out for the titillation of the masses on cable TV and in magazines and books.

squalid    1.(of places and living conditions 处所及生活环境) very dirty and unpleasant

肮脏的；邋遢的【SYN】 filthy 

»squalid housing肮脏的房屋

2. (of situations or activities 情况或活动) involving low moral standards or dishonest behaviour

这里意思  道德败坏的；丑恶的；卑鄙的  【SYN】 sordid 

»It was a squalid affair involving prostitutes and drugs.那是一桩涉及娼妓与毒品的丑事

and to bash everyone who had ever done them wrong.

bash   这里意思是to criticize sb / sth strongly严厉批评

»Bashing politicians is normal practice in the press.严厉批判政治人物乃是新闻界常事。

延伸：bash sth out大量粗制滥造【SYN】 knock out :

»She bashed out about four books a year.她一年大概炮制出四本书。

Thoughts

Remember this when you write your own family history. Don’t try to be a “writer.”

Your product is you. The crucial transaction in memoir and personal history is the transaction between you and your remembered experiences and emotions.

---回忆录应该以孩子时候的视角写，还是以现在成人的视角写呢 ?

1.作者认为The strongest memoirs are those that preserve the unity of a remembered time and place。保证记忆中时间与地点的统一性

2.另一种选择是to write about your younger years from the wiser perspective of your older years—that memoir will have its own integrity.这种选择也会它有独特的完整性

But these are two different kinds of writing. Choose one.

---如何处理写到的家人的隐私呢 ?

不要事先就担忧这个问题。先写再说。如果是只写给家人看的家庭史，就无所谓了。但如果要给外人看或者出版，就要给家人看其中提到他们的页码——这是起码的尊重。

---最后，这是你写的故事。

假如有家人对你的回忆录不能同意，他们可以写自己的回忆录。and it will be just as valid as yours; nobody has a monopoly on the shared past.

是啊，写回忆录涉及了记忆的提取和重建，所以作者难免都是主观的，而这同时也是being yourself.

---作者又提到了the memoir-crazed 1990s.  90年代的回忆录热，但是很多作者using the form to wallow in self-revelation and self-pity and to bash everyone who had ever done them wrong. 

Writing was out and whining was in. 这太可悲了！

所以，不要用回忆录来发泄过去的伤痛，排解愤恨。毕竟，90年代出版的回忆录中大家仍记得的是 那些写出爱和原谅的书籍。尽管他们很多人过去充满很多悲惨与痛苦，但是这些作者让我们知道，我们并非受害者。我们的家人避免不了犯错误，但是我们无怨无悔地继续走下去我们自己的人生。We come from a tribe of fallible people and we have survived without resentment to get on with our lives.写回忆录对他们来说已变成一种自我治愈的行为。这才是真正让人欣赏的回忆录作品！

作者也说到了如何处理各种材料，又是各种decisions或是注意的事项，其实和上一节差不了太多，就不多说了。

记住：关注小处。Your biggest stories will often have less to do with their subject than with their significance—not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation affected you and shaped the person you became.

你最大的故事常与其重要性相关，而非题材——不是你在某个场合做了什么，而是那个场合如何影响了你，并且塑造成了现在的你。

最后就是——Then all you have to do is put the pieces together.

---

作者原本不是非要当作家的，并没有那种突然就想当作家的奇想时刻。他原本可能随父亲的期望跟着父亲做生意的，但是战后返家不久 ，他就去了一家报业，而且他父亲大度地接受了。

不过，关于写作，作者从小受到父亲和母亲的影响。

母亲的影响——重要的是写作本身，而不是载体。

父亲的影响——a bone-deep belief that quality is its own reward

后来写作的过程中又有了很多的想法，比如：

Besides wanting to write as well as possible, I wanted to write as entertainingly as possible.

Yet to defend what you’ve written is a sign that you are alive.

作者还写了和编辑的关系，ideally the relationship between a writer and an editor should be one of negotiation and trust.