Thank you, Grant. This is one of the most helpful craft pieces I've read in a while and so helpful for me at this time. To highlight one nugget: How insightul (and effective) that Siri Hustvedt switched to third person!
Wow. If I'd read this 20 years ago, it wouldn't have taken me 18 years to edit and publish the writing my sister left me when she died, hoping I'd find an audience for it. She wrote from a place of extreme trauma, and the writing she left me was in scraps and fragments. The one long piece, which focused on the traumatic event, was written from such a distance that the voice didn't sound like hers, so I set that aside. I finally realized I could curate the fragments into a collection that told a non-linear story, the way a mosaic creates an image. Thank you for this--it feels like a revelation.
Enlightening post on a tricky topic. Many years ago I wrote my dissertation on the narrative techniques of traumatic historical novels. Your review of common features of traumatic narrative rings "true"--thanks for sharing it.
People ask me how I could remember my chiildhood that is the central topic my memoir, "Spirit of the Village A Maui Memoir." My answer is, "It was traumatic."
Speaking of how the language of the narrative shifts, I thought of Natasha Trethewey's memoir "Memorial Drive." There is a particularly traumatic part where she shifts point of view to second person. Later, she even addresses that shift. I found all of that interesting, unusual, and effective.
So fascinating and helpful, thank you! In a recent essay I played with switching to third person whenever I dissociated from my body, and that seemed to more truly convey that experience. I will be thinking about how trauma fragments our memories and how to render that on the page.
This topic reminds me of a workshop I took with Lidia Yuknavitch called "Time Fuck," based on the premise that we don't remember our lives in a linear way at all, so a truer rendering is in non-chronological fragments. Such exciting stuff!!
"At the furthest extreme, trauma doesn’t just reshape language—it shatters it."
Thank you for your post about writers working through trauma by writing about and through it. I personally found reading about trauma easier to take in fiction. One Memoir changed that, actually two. "Educated," and Mary Karr's "Cherry."
"So there’s a question for a writer—to seek to mimetically represent an experience in its highest truth or to seek personal healing from writing. I personally like to think you can do both."
I liked this quote too, but could you explain the use of "mimetically?"
I especially enjoyed your "edge of language" section that included Starry's quote: “Whatever pain achieves, it achieves in part through its unsharability, and it ensures this unsharability through its resistance to language.” I thought to myself, "ohhh, yep, that's it." Thanks for another great post, Grant. Love that photo, too!
Excellent essay, Grant. What you wrote about trauma's story being in fragments and feelings, not sequential narrative stories struck me as exactly right, Truth with a capital T. Thanks for this clarity.
Thank you, Grant. This is one of the most helpful craft pieces I've read in a while and so helpful for me at this time. To highlight one nugget: How insightul (and effective) that Siri Hustvedt switched to third person!
Thanks, Kathy! I appreciate your kind words. I loved that part from Siri. So telling. Her episode will drop in a couple of weeks.
Such a beautiful memoir! Can’t wait for that!
Wow. If I'd read this 20 years ago, it wouldn't have taken me 18 years to edit and publish the writing my sister left me when she died, hoping I'd find an audience for it. She wrote from a place of extreme trauma, and the writing she left me was in scraps and fragments. The one long piece, which focused on the traumatic event, was written from such a distance that the voice didn't sound like hers, so I set that aside. I finally realized I could curate the fragments into a collection that told a non-linear story, the way a mosaic creates an image. Thank you for this--it feels like a revelation.
Enlightening post on a tricky topic. Many years ago I wrote my dissertation on the narrative techniques of traumatic historical novels. Your review of common features of traumatic narrative rings "true"--thanks for sharing it.
People ask me how I could remember my chiildhood that is the central topic my memoir, "Spirit of the Village A Maui Memoir." My answer is, "It was traumatic."
Speaking of how the language of the narrative shifts, I thought of Natasha Trethewey's memoir "Memorial Drive." There is a particularly traumatic part where she shifts point of view to second person. Later, she even addresses that shift. I found all of that interesting, unusual, and effective.
I haven't read that yet, but it's on my list. Thanks for sharing this.
Wonderful, insightful post!
So fascinating and helpful, thank you! In a recent essay I played with switching to third person whenever I dissociated from my body, and that seemed to more truly convey that experience. I will be thinking about how trauma fragments our memories and how to render that on the page.
This topic reminds me of a workshop I took with Lidia Yuknavitch called "Time Fuck," based on the premise that we don't remember our lives in a linear way at all, so a truer rendering is in non-chronological fragments. Such exciting stuff!!
Thanks so much for sharing, Kristin. And how wonderful you studied with Lidia. I love her. I'm very much a "collagist" of the page.
Yes! I’m trying to do this as well…. With inspiration from Lidia, Maggie Smith, and the collagists you and Brooke interview on Memoir Nation!
Yes, yes, and yes. Especially resonate with the eternal present tense of trauma.
"At the furthest extreme, trauma doesn’t just reshape language—it shatters it."
Thank you for your post about writers working through trauma by writing about and through it. I personally found reading about trauma easier to take in fiction. One Memoir changed that, actually two. "Educated," and Mary Karr's "Cherry."
"So there’s a question for a writer—to seek to mimetically represent an experience in its highest truth or to seek personal healing from writing. I personally like to think you can do both."
I liked this quote too, but could you explain the use of "mimetically?"
Thanks so much, Ellen. I think trauma probably is generally easier to read about in fiction. I'll have to think about that, though.
Bu mimetically, I mean to represent it as close to life as you can, with the layers and the splinterings, etc.
Perhaps that’s why I can’t move my story along.
Wow. Tense collapse is real. I get so frustrated trying to correct myself! Embrace the splinter!
I especially enjoyed your "edge of language" section that included Starry's quote: “Whatever pain achieves, it achieves in part through its unsharability, and it ensures this unsharability through its resistance to language.” I thought to myself, "ohhh, yep, that's it." Thanks for another great post, Grant. Love that photo, too!
Thanks for your kind words, Nin--and for reading! I'm glad the piece resonated.
Really interesting post. And yes, great photo!
I think I now maybe better understand my stuttering.
Thank you for this post, Grant. It bridges a gap in my self-awareness.
Excellent essay, Grant. What you wrote about trauma's story being in fragments and feelings, not sequential narrative stories struck me as exactly right, Truth with a capital T. Thanks for this clarity.
A very thoughtful read, I especially like the language and white space/noise metaphor