Week 5: Fluidity of Truth

    The concept of fluidity in writing is necessary when writing a memoir, or anything relying heavily on a person's memories. Memories themselves are fluid, blurred in some places and crystal clear in others, thus one should expect a book based on memories to have a certain degree of fluidity as well. Every book has some blend of truth and fiction. Fiction novelists are hypocrites for criticizing memoirs as false stories being portrayed as truth as they create stories with bits of truth from their own lives while calling them fiction. All books have elements of fact and fiction, it is inevitable. 

    The article states "There is, after all, a fluidity between who we were to other people, who we thought we were, who we think we were, and who we think we are now." Fluidity is important in memoirs as our perspective changes overtime, as do the perspectives of those involved. Things change and what was once true may now be false, thus fluidity is a necessary aspect of writing. However, a writer must be careful with how much they implement that fluidity in their writing as if the perspective and view on things are always changing, the audience may become confused or feel that the memoir is changing too constantly to possibly be true, creating a sense of inauthenticity. 

    My favorite memoir is Night by Elie Wiesel (https://www.amazon.com/Night-Elie-Wiesel/dp/0374500010). This memoir is from a Holocaust survivor detailing his experiences with his father throughout World War II within the concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald. As expected, it is a fairly dark novel and explores the concept of humanity, the father-son relationship, and the absence of God in the horrors of the war. Some of my favorite quotes from the novel that display the true horrors of the war and the harsh affect it had on people's mental states were "you cannot think of others. Not even you father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone," "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never,", and "We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive." As a huge history buff, I have read many novels and memoirs about major world events and tragedies but this memoir is so heartbreaking and full of emotion that it has always held a place in my heart and my bookshelf. The novel taught me to appreciate the life I live and the freedoms I have so much more than I ever had before. You can hear about the tragedies of World War II and think you understand, but until you've read about them from the survivors perspective, you don't know what pain they truly went through. The author's voice is so authentic and raw as he describes the atrocities he witnessed in these camps, it's almost as if I was transported there for a moment as well. This level of raw emotion allows the reader to feel a fraction of what the author experienced and witness the true horrors the world.

    However, if I were to learn that certain aspects of the book had been more or so less true, I'm not sure I would feel any less connected to the novel. Traumatic events like the Holocaust often leave survivors with gaps in their memories, holes they need to fill in with their own assumptions or with the memories of those around them. A degree of uncertainty would be expected from me as this memoir covers such an expanse of time full of horrific memories that no person could retain entirely without breaking. The author states himself the importance of memory within his memoir, "For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences." Memory is highly unreliable, especially when such trauma occurs, so I would be willing to accept the fluidity within the memoir. On the other hand, if I discovered the author fully invented certain scenes in the memoir without much truth within them, I would feel far less drawn to the novel. The events of the war and the experiences of the Jewish people were so horrific that inventing stories and creating false narratives would cheapen the pain and anguish of those who lived through the true horrors depicted. I don't believe this to be true for this memoir but I would feel less emotionally connected to the author and his story if it were. If the author came out with another memoir changing his perspective on his experience in the war, I wouldn't feel any less connected to him. As time goes on, our views change, we grow. I believe I could still read both perspectives and view them both as true, just in different time periods. Truth is fluid, it can change from different versions of oneself or from different people entirely. 

I think this novel could be transferred into a blog with each post being more like a diary entry. However, the lack of a timeless nature within the novel does create a conflict with this specific memoir being posted as a blog. The very specific time period for the memoir makes it very difficult to imagine this book as a blog but even if it were some issues still would remain. A memoir as emotional and tragic as Night would lose a lot of its impact by being split into multiple blog posts. Being able to read along and experience the horrors with the author is a huge emotional pull for the audience and those breaks a blog provides would ruin that effect.