Week 6: Memoir Analysis
Difficult Girl
In her memoir, Lena Dunham promptly sets the scene, painting
a quick but effective picture of a young girl afraid of everything. I could relate
to this strongly in my late teens, early twenties – not because I was afraid of
germs or anything, but because part of my anxiety manifested in OCD tendencies.
Lena captures the experience well, as the need for control shifts from one area
of life to another. Reading her memoir reminded me of how much I missed my
therapist when I gave up therapy and is encouraging. She shows us how she gets
better through the interactions with the therapists and those close to her –
even when they are not perfect, she is trying to find a way to get well, which
is inspiring. I don’t think she over-tells it in this piece – she shows us a
lot through the interactions she describes.
In the words of the great Fox Mulder, I want to believe. I
may have used this quote before, but it really is something I think all the
time. I am always inclined to give benefit of the doubt. We all want to
believe in the truth that someone tells us. With Lena Dunham, I want to believe
that her descriptions and representations of her young 9-year-old self are truthful,
but admittedly part of me was skeptical of certain details that seem very
advanced or grown-up for a 9-year-old. For example, her awareness of the intent
and her goals in the visit with the “woman with the German surname” is characterized
in a mature way that makes her sound much more aware of what is going on than I
would expect of a typical 9-year-old, though on a second read I am reminded
that she is an adult telling the story and is able now to put the big, vague
ideas of a child into proper words.
Cousins
Lena was quick on the picture painting abilities. Not a second wasted on her descriptive writing. Helpful in telling her story. Lena's story is super relatable to the generation coming up now. People have always had mental hurdles to jump over, these last 20 years or so people have been more open to talk about them. Your right, a lot of what she experienced is expressed in her blog post. It helps you understand who she is very well, if you wanted to or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about cousins. Not too descriptive with his storytelling. You have to really form your own image of who this mysterious cousin is. She is faceless but has a few emotions attached to her. Not enough to know who she is though. Just scratched the surface on who the cousin is.
I fully agree with your perception of Dunham's descriptive abilities, she pulls the reader in from the start and gives enough detail to keep them immersed in the scenes she is describing. I also particularly enjoyed the interactions between her and her various therapists. Not many people are willing to open up so greatly about that private relationship so it was a nice look into a largely unspoken of experience. On the other hand, I had the opposite feeling for Cousins. While Cousins was relatable and felt earnest to me, the lack of background information or details made me feel left out of the loop. I felt as if I were an outsider looking in, which in a way I am, but isn't the purpose of a memoir to allow the reader into their life and their perspective, not keep them at arms length? These two memoirs were very different in their approaches to detail; Dunham's felt as if there were too many details to keep up with at times while Cousins didn't have enough.
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