Study of Multiple Perspectives of Creative Non-Fiction
Storified by Lily Wang ·
Sun, Dec 06 2015 01:29:14
![Lens #1: Memoir]()
Lens #1: MemoirNow that you have read one or more of the text selections offered, you will begin to "Storify" your personal exploration of the text(s) you chose by looking at the text through the "lenses" provided. This is Lens #1: Memoir. Storify this page. Watch this clip (sorry it's not that entertaining!).
Memoir- a narrative composed by personal experiences- focuses mainly on the plot, characters and setting of the story (whereas autobiographies are just documentations of what has happened), making it way more interesting for readers. It especially grabs the reader's attention when they can relate with part of the story. For instance, I felt a rush of curiosity when I realized that Kim Thúy (author of Ru)'s mother and upbringing is quite similar to my own. Even though I was already captured by her creative way of using words and abstractedly describing events, the similarities between her mother and mine brought back memories of my past. So, in a sense, I think memoirs not only serve the purpose of telling readers what the author went through, but also to make the readers remember their past stories, their good and bad memories, their treasured possessions that they've recently forgotten.
![Lens #2 Format]()
Lens #2 FormatWe all watched the film adaptation of Satrapi's Persepolis. Consider the storytelling format or medium of film. How successful was this format when compared to your text in presenting a memoir. As a unique animated film, was the format more powerful and effective? What is the best format for a memoir: book, film, play, other?
Film or text? That question has aroused debates and discussions everywhere over the last century. I think it depends on how the book was written. For graphic novels like Persepolis, it's really cool to see its film, to watch the characters come to life, to see the change in their expressions, to give them voice, background music and sound effects. But on the other hand, for stories like Ru that are told with segments of vignettes, which focuses on descriptions, feelings and thoughts, it's better to be read as a book. The descriptive language, and the abstract ideas are best understood with words. Not to mention the constant switch between the past and present, will make Ru really hard to be presented in the form of a film. Films usually don't have narrators (if they do, there's not a lot of narration) and text only comes in the form of dialogues, which Ru does not have a lot of. So the story is hard to convey through the means of film.
![Lens #3: Historical Context]()
Lens #3: Historical ContextEach text is rooted in a larger global context. Explore the background and context relevant to your text(s). Go beyond. The Taliban. Check out background sources on this . You can start exploring here. You may go to other sources. ( I am Malala) The Boat People.
Being an immigrant myself, I can somewhat relate to the Boat People. However, all the pains they've been through, all the trouble they've experienced in their home country and as refugees, I cannot imagine. Do they hate their home country? Or do they not? It is their home after all, where they were born, where they were raised. But they were forced to flee from home with only the slightest possibility of reaching 'heaven', but with the utmost certainty of "drowning, starvation and dehydration, [or] pirates and rape and murder" (
Asia/Canada); I emigrated because my family wanted to. The Vietnamese had to pay everything they had to bribe the officers; we didn't need to bribe. Most of the time they had no control over their own destiny. They have no choice of being where they want to be, doing what they want to do, having what they want to have. Surviving. That's all they can afford to care about, when maggots climbed up their legs in the rain, when pirates assaulted them everyday. Surviving, to see the future they hope to see. A future so distant and unfamiliar. A future that should've been theirs since they were born.
![Lens #4: Voice - Interviews & Speeches]()
Lens #4: Voice - Interviews & SpeechesCheck out a few interviews below based on the text(s) you read. Storify this page or the videos you watch. Connect to you, the text, other texts, the world. Add comments/reflections to your Storify on this media. Tweet something you found interesting in your journey using hashtag #MulgraveLenses.
Surprisingly, when Kim Thúy wrote Ru, she didn't think it would spread beyond her family and friends. She simply wrote what she remembered, what she felt and wanted her children, her friends to know her story. "It was ... more like a thank you note to the Canadians who welcomed us", Kim had said during the interview with The Agenda (2:22). It's really interesting to see why authors have written what they have written, because often they end up being so different from what we expect. And I think how Kim has written it, without the greater public in mind, is the best way to express exactly what she wants to express.
![Lens #5: Exile]()
Lens #5: ExileThe idea of "exile" is an "archetypal" or universal theme in across time and cultures. Exile, as the Arabic word implies, refers to a punishment by banishment, "just like the fate of Oedipus, who in the end had to join the world of punishable criminals, condemned to be expelled so that cities and communities might purify themselves from their likes."
Exile, a rift between the self and its true home (as explained by Edward Said), is an unbearable situation. I've never felt so out of place as to call it an "unhealable rift" (Said), but Kim Thúy has definitely experienced it. And from it, she achieved and she lost. But sometimes a loss can be an achievement too. For example, Kim lost her vietnamese home, and at the same time, the role to succeed her mother. Being named after her, Kim's destiny originally was to 'extend' the life of her mother. But after the Vietnamese war began, and they were forced to flee, she lost that destiny along with the feeling of belonging. Without her home, without her friends that she used to know, without communication, travelling to everywhere and anywhere that took them in- she was a freeloader, and everywhere felt like home, she had said. She even calls her hotel room 'home'. But when she first came to Canada, with all the non-hesitant welcoming from neighbours, teachers and friends, she felt like she finally belonged. The feeling of belonging is something that just happens. At first you might think logically about it: they all love taking selfies, and I hate selfies, so I don't belong with them. But that's not necessarily the case. It's just who (or what or where) makes you, you. Where you can be no one else, but yourself.
![Lens #6: Girl Bildungsroman]()
Lens #6: Girl BildungsromanA coming of age story, also called a Bildungsroman, is all about the protagonist's journey from being a child to being an adult. It is a journey that takes a young person from naïve to wise, from idealist to realist, and from immature to mature.
I think instead of focusing on Kim's coming of age, Ru focuses more on the stories and events that unfold around the character rather than the changes happening to the main character herself. If it was considered a "bildungsroman", then Ru wouldn't need to talk about the man whom the sky had saved, or the child who is a prisoner in his own world, not able to speak to us, not able to hear us, even though he is neither mute nor deaf. Also, the method of relating the vignettes by subject and not by time, disrupts the plot of the character development if it was a bildungsroman. So I think that Ru is barely, barely, considered a bildungsroman, since it does show how her thoughts matured, just not very clearly.
![Lens #7: ISMs]()
Lens #7: ISMsEach link takes you to an "ism" definition. Your job is to go out and explore how this "ism" connects to you, the text, other texts, and/or the world. Storify your journey. Make comments on what your discover and the connections you make. Tweet something using hashtag #MulgraveLenses.
