Marcel Proust drove his publishers crazy with the number of editions and Changes he made to his proofs. Not only did he cross things out, he also wrote whole new paragraphs on scraps of paper and pasted the scraps to his proofs.
In the Middle Ages remission letters were sent to kings or princes in the hope that they would pardon crimes committed by the sender of the letters. The skill with which the letters were written had a lot to do with whether they were successful or not. These letters often took the form of narratives. I am interested in the difference between fiction and autobiography that do not have a specific purpose and writing that does. For example pornography and erotica are designed to sexually arouse the reader.
Years ago I did a performance piece in which I described my mother slamming my head into a stair. I was nine years old. I sent my mother a letter about the incident and she wrote back saying that it never happened. I realized that I wanted an apology, but I did not make that clear when I sent her the letter. I wrote out an apology. It began: ”Dear Peter, I am terribly sorry for what I did to you. I know there is no excuse for hurting a child.” I sent her a self-addressed stamped envelope and asked her to read the letter, sign it and return it to me. She did not return the letter but it was satisfying to send it to her. Sometimes we don’t get the apology we want unless we write it ourselves.
Marcel Proust drove his publishers crazy with the number of editions and Changes he made to his proofs. Not only did he cross things out, he also wrote whole new paragraphs on scraps of paper and pasted the scraps to his proofs.
In the Middle Ages remission letters were sent to kings or princes in the hope that they would pardon crimes committed by the sender of the letters. The skill with which the letters were written had a lot to do with whether they were successful or not. These letters often took the form of narratives. I am interested in the difference between fiction and autobiography that do not have a specific purpose and writing that does. For example pornography and erotica are designed to sexually arouse the reader.
Years ago I did a performance piece in which I described my mother slamming my head into a stair. I was nine years old. I sent my mother a letter about the incident and she wrote back saying that it never happened. I realized that I wanted an apology, but I did not make that clear when I sent her the letter. I wrote out an apology. It began: ”Dear Peter, I am terribly sorry for what I did to you. I know there is no excuse for hurting a child.” I sent her a self-addressed stamped envelope and asked her to read the letter, sign it and return it to me. She did not return the letter but it was satisfying to send it to her. Sometimes we don’t get the apology we want unless we write it ourselves.
I love the personal history, Adventures... of Peter Leroy. Thank you for the comp. I’m reading a weekly serial mystery, too. On FB and codrescu.com