Reading your life as if it were a book

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marjoram_blues
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Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

Is it possible to write out your life story, complete with characters, scenes and themes, as a book?
What combination of fact/fiction would be involved?
Would writing it out help to make sense of your life?

What key events would be included/excluded in your understanding of your life, past, present and anticipated future? To be a useful tool in self exploration, the descriptive focus might have to be narrowed.

For example, a particular time and place. A high or low point. A turning point. An experience of change. Continuity even within a period of change. The pattern of sameness. The role of faith. The role of reason. Politics. How you deal with opposite views. Has capacity to listen been enhanced, diminished, or stayed the same...over the years. Or does it depend on mood, the moon, or momentary distraction.

When you read other narratives, can you relate to them, or do you not even lift the book ?

[ some ideas taken from 'Faith, Politics, and the Life Story' - Foley Centre ]

My own view is to see my own life as a book. When one chapter ends, another opens. That is how I move on...
Walker
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by Walker »

Are you creating the tale, or merely transcribing what happened?
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

Walker wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 9:37 am Are you creating the tale, or merely transcribing what happened?
Good question.
A bit of both?

I'm really interested in discovering what more is out there on this subject.
From any point of view. My main interest is in therapeutic value; philosophical, spiritual but mostly pragmatic.

I see there is a section concerning 'Narrative identity' on wiki...
duszek
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by duszek »

Different points of view lead to different selection of facts and to different comments and conclusions.

Example:

From the point of view of my sister (who is a banker) my life is that of a loser.

From the point of view of my soul mate my life is that of a ... cheerful butterfly.

The same person, two or more different life stories.

I can imagine that different psychiatrists would make different pictures of a person´s life according to the school of thought they adhere to.

It depends heavily on the criteria that the narrator happens to have (at a given moment).
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

duszek wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:02 pm Different points of view lead to different selection of facts and to different comments and conclusions.

Example:

From the point of view of my sister (who is a banker) my life is that of a loser.

From the point of view of my soul mate my life is that of a ... cheerful butterfly.

The same person, two or more different life stories.

I can imagine that different psychiatrists would make different pictures of a person´s life according to the school of thought they adhere to.

It depends heavily on the criteria that the narrator happens to have (at a given moment).
Interesting points raised.
From the point of view of yourself, what criteria would you choose to portray your life. As if it were to be the most honest account possible? Would it be useful to choose certain events or turning points to illustrate.
Different chapters e.g. related to moral challenges; educational achievements; relationships.
How would you show how other characters ( family/friends/ significant others )and their thoughts about you influence your own sense of self, or self-esteem. How did you, or your philosophy, grow from either adversity or success...

[ found an online article by Alain Badiou - ' Philosophy as Biography'....at www.lacan.com under the Symptom 9]
duszek
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by duszek »

One could write like this:

"Very late in life I finally realized that I had to lie at least 10 times a day in order to be an adult. I started a chart and made a point for each lie. On days when I was not able to make a point I got worried."

This would be life from the point of view of a disappointed idealistic person.
Someone like David Foster Wallace perhaps. Who ended up badly.
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

duszek wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:32 pm One could write like this:

"Very late in life I finally realized that I had to lie at least 10 times a day in order to be an adult. I started a chart and made a point for each lie. On days when I was not able to make a point I got worried."

This would be life from the point of view of a disappointed idealistic person.
Someone like David Foster Wallace perhaps. Who ended up badly.
I seem to remember, in a previous PN chapter - that you once recommended, or mentioned, his 'Infinite Jest' which I then attempted to read. Perhaps it was someone else...
Anyway, it is such an extraordinary book - I think I had to give up first time round, then revisited it some time later.

Is that quote one of his, or a character. Or both ? Have you tried to keep such a chart ? I wonder what caused his 'realization' so late in life...and why would it worry him when he couldn't lie...

Anyway, ' Infinite Jest' is described by one reviewer as a lifechanger. Did it have that effect on you?
Trouble is, the review was kinda short. 'Sorta changed my life'.
Could be a bit of an understatement, and we are kinda left wondering 'How?'
Dalek Prime
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by Dalek Prime »

I'd make it factual, leaving judgments and interpretations to others, without any from me.
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

Dalek Prime wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 10:20 pm I'd make it factual, leaving judgments and interpretations to others, without any from me.
Don't you think that in providing even a skeleton of biographical facts, some judgments are already involved. You choose what to select, in what order - chronological, or by theme...
And this slight framework, if it is to be a Self Autobiography, would require fleshing out and filling up - to be more valuable?

Self written wiki information can tell as little or as much of a person and facts of birth, death, marriages etc but this is a mere snapshot of a life. There's a mini biography of Victoria Principal on IMDb - did you know she was Miss Miami in 1969. Trivial stuff but perhaps a turning point in her life...
I enjoyed her personal quote about her greatest fear in life: 'is not to be challenged, is to grow weary of life, and not to be passionate about it'.
Of course, she may have changed her mind...
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

From the earlier mentioned Alain Badiou article:

' Nietzsche wrote that a philosophy is always the biography of the philosopher. Maybe a biography of the philosopher by the philosopher himself is a piece of philosophy. So I shall tell you nine stories taken of my private life, with their philosophical morality...the first story is of the father and the mother...'
Dalek Prime
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by Dalek Prime »

marjoram_blues wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:17 am
Dalek Prime wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 10:20 pm I'd make it factual, leaving judgments and interpretations to others, without any from me.
Don't you think that in providing even a skeleton of biographical facts, some judgments are already involved. You choose what to select, in what order - chronological, or by theme...
And this slight framework, if it is to be a Self Autobiography, would require fleshing out and filling up - to be more valuable?

Self written wiki information can tell as little or as much of a person and facts of birth, death, marriages etc but this is a mere snapshot of a life. There's a mini biography of Victoria Principal on IMDb - did you know she was Miss Miami in 1969. Trivial stuff but perhaps a turning point in her life...
I enjoyed her personal quote about her greatest fear in life: 'is not to be challenged, is to grow weary of life, and not to be passionate about it'.
Of course, she may have changed her mind...
I was working with the hypothetical that all facts could be recorded.

A female author wrote about abandoning narrative in her life, that preferences not met would not equate to dwelling on perceived tragedy in retrospect, and make life more bearable.

As to Victoria's quote, it reminds me of Odysseus' rejection of the offers Callisto made to him of immortality and no cares. Myself, I would have taken her up on it, minus the immortality part.
marjoram_blues
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by marjoram_blues »

Dalek Prime wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:46 pm
marjoram_blues wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:17 am
Dalek Prime wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 10:20 pm I'd make it factual, leaving judgments and interpretations to others, without any from me.
Don't you think that in providing even a skeleton of biographical facts, some judgments are already involved. You choose what to select, in what order - chronological, or by theme...
And this slight framework, if it is to be a Self Autobiography, would require fleshing out and filling up - to be more valuable?

Self written wiki information can tell as little or as much of a person and facts of birth, death, marriages etc but this is a mere snapshot of a life. There's a mini biography of Victoria Principal on IMDb - did you know she was Miss Miami in 1969. Trivial stuff but perhaps a turning point in her life...
I enjoyed her personal quote about her greatest fear in life: 'is not to be challenged, is to grow weary of life, and not to be passionate about it'.
Of course, she may have changed her mind...
I was working with the hypothetical that all facts could be recorded.

A female author wrote about abandoning narrative in her life, that preferences not met would not equate to dwelling on perceived tragedy in retrospect, and make life more bearable.

As to Victoria's quote, it reminds me of Odysseus' rejection of the offers Callisto made to him of immortality and no cares. Myself, I would have taken her up on it, minus the immortality part.
I am intrigued by your mention of 'a female author' - abandoning narrative in her life...to make life more bearable. I don't understand the bit about 'preferences not met' - is that about having life choices limited? And looking back at a life, perhaps not lived to the full, might be thought tragic, or a waste of potential?

Have you any more information on the author?

I googled a bit and found Paul John Eakin - in About the Authors - Empowering women through narrative - www.narrativepower.weebly.com
Outlines 11 female authors...

He wrote the book, ' How we create identity in narrative'...the challenges involved in writing about one's own life...borrows from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and the law...invents the term ' relational autobiography' ....

So, DP, thanks for tickling my curiosity bone...now, who was that female author ?
Dalek Prime
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by Dalek Prime »

marjoram_blues wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 4:51 pm
Dalek Prime wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:46 pm
marjoram_blues wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:17 am

Don't you think that in providing even a skeleton of biographical facts, some judgments are already involved. You choose what to select, in what order - chronological, or by theme...
And this slight framework, if it is to be a Self Autobiography, would require fleshing out and filling up - to be more valuable?

Self written wiki information can tell as little or as much of a person and facts of birth, death, marriages etc but this is a mere snapshot of a life. There's a mini biography of Victoria Principal on IMDb - did you know she was Miss Miami in 1969. Trivial stuff but perhaps a turning point in her life...
I enjoyed her personal quote about her greatest fear in life: 'is not to be challenged, is to grow weary of life, and not to be passionate about it'.
Of course, she may have changed her mind...
I was working with the hypothetical that all facts could be recorded.

A female author wrote about abandoning narrative in her life, that preferences not met would not equate to dwelling on perceived tragedy in retrospect, and make life more bearable.

As to Victoria's quote, it reminds me of Odysseus' rejection of the offers Callisto made to him of immortality and no cares. Myself, I would have taken her up on it, minus the immortality part.
I am intrigued by your mention of 'a female author' - abandoning narrative in her life...to make life more bearable. I don't understand the bit about 'preferences not met' - is that about having life choices limited? And looking back at a life, perhaps not lived to the full, might be thought tragic, or a waste of potential?

Have you any more information on the author?

I googled a bit and found Paul John Eakin - in About the Authors - Empowering women through narrative - www.narrativepower.weebly.com
Outlines 11 female authors...

He wrote the book, ' How we create identity in narrative'...the challenges involved in writing about one's own life...borrows from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and the law...invents the term ' relational autobiography' ....

So, DP, thanks for tickling my curiosity bone...now, who was that female author ?
Her name is Sarah Perry (or at least her writing name), from Texas. She wrote 'Every Cradle is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide'. You may not like what she says, but I find her highly intelligent, and have a lot of respect for her. Ive mentioned her in the book section before. This young woman has many insights and ideas worth looking into.

Oh... the bit about 'preferences not met' is just a reference to antifrustrationism. But yes, a narrative can bring on feelings of regret.
duszek
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by duszek »

marjoram_blues wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:55 pm
duszek wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:32 pm One could write like this:

"Very late in life I finally realized that I had to lie at least 10 times a day in order to be an adult. I started a chart and made a point for each lie. On days when I was not able to make a point I got worried."

This would be life from the point of view of a disappointed idealistic person.
Someone like David Foster Wallace perhaps. Who ended up badly.
I seem to remember, in a previous PN chapter - that you once recommended, or mentioned, his 'Infinite Jest' which I then attempted to read. Perhaps it was someone else...
Anyway, it is such an extraordinary book - I think I had to give up first time round, then revisited it some time later.

Is that quote one of his, or a character. Or both ? Have you tried to keep such a chart ? I wonder what caused his 'realization' so late in life...and why would it worry him when he couldn't lie...

Anyway, ' Infinite Jest' is described by one reviewer as a lifechanger. Did it have that effect on you?
Trouble is, the review was kinda short. 'Sorta changed my life'.
Could be a bit of an understatement, and we are kinda left wondering 'How?'
No, I did not quote from "Infinite Jest", I just printed something spontaneously as an example of someone focusing on one particular aspect of his life: honesty and lying.

Another aspect could be: how I move from one love to another (and got cheated by some conmen on the way too) because love is the best.

Another person could describe his life focusing on his bank account.

Another one focusing on watching weight.

Another one focusing on jogging performance.

A book worm could tell how certain books made a difference to his life. Anything else being secondary.

A jokster could tell which jokes accompanied him in his life.

A gourmet could tell the story of his meal discoveries.
Last edited by duszek on Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
duszek
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Re: Reading your life as if it were a book

Post by duszek »

A good starting point could be to realize whether there have been any turning points in one´s life.

The turning points could be analyzed and important personal criteria could be discoverd which in turn would allow a deep access into a person´s personality.
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