Sylvia Fraser's My Father's House

A child who experiences molestation has every ounce of her being compromised and her womanhood robbed of her. Sylvia was no different. The detective and the murder victim are one and the same. Sylvia Fraser had to go within herself to find out what really happened to her as a child and found that a piece of her had been murdered.

She describes the moments that she recalls and you can not help but visualize the horror that she felt as a child. She recalls that each abominable act experienced with her father is followed by her falling into convulsions. These convulsions were seen as Sylvia misbehaving (Page 487) I am amazed that her mother never thought once to take her child to the doctor to investigate why these episodes happened.

I also see a close reference with the given quote and the “twin” that Sylvia created in her youth. “From then on I would have two selves – the child who knows (the “twin”) and that child that dares not know any longer...” (Page 490) The child who dares not know becomes the detective in her later years and the child that knows dies daily at with each terrible act. I am very surprised that she is able to forgive her father after being robbed of protection in her youth and a chance at motherhood in her later years.

Sylvia’s recalling of dreams in which there were mirrors also relates closely with what Margaret Atwood wrote. Sylvia realizes that her “twin” or “other self” repressed memories. “Imagine this: imagine you discover that for many years another person intimately shared your life without you knowing it...but during all that time you never actually saw the person.” She continues by writing, “She monitored my every thought, manipulated my actions, aided my survival and sabotaged my dreams, for she was I and I was she. (Page 496) Again you see that Sylvia digs deep into her memory, learns of suppressed memory and of her “other self” that would help her remember protected her from those memories.

This was a particularly hard reading for me as I had a friend in middle school who along with her other 5 sisters was raped repeatedly by their father. Sadly we know that not everyone who experiences childhood abuse comes through it with forgiveness and pity for the perpetrator.

Little White Lies

Little white lies have often become acceptable in peoples everyday lives. Whether it be an untruthful compliment, or an over exaggeration of a story. There is a huge difference between a big lie and a little white lie, because usually little white lies are harmless. In the YouTube video “crazy bride wig out”, the video is harmless and is never once stated that it actually happened. The video is more or less posted for entertainment, as most you tube videos are.
However, James Frey, stated that the book was truthful, which lead the readers to believe a lie. This was a big lie because, many people bought his book and believed his story to be truthful, and were let down when they found out otherwise. Little white lies usually don’t do people any good, and it is usually best to stick to the truth.

White Lies

A lie is a lie no matter what color you want to paint it. No such thing as a small lie or a big lie either, as the end result is the same: deception. A white lie should never be accepted and authors should always make it clear to potential readers whether they are telling their truth or not.

In terms of "crazy bride" I do not see that video as being a lie. It was posted on youtube which is not necessarily credible. While some things on youtube are beneficial and credible, the viewer must know that information provided in this forum will not always be real. I did not feel decieved when watching and was more or less entertained. I also do not believe that the creators of this video needed to explain whether or not they were telling the truth because of where it was posted. If it was submitted to a news station then I would have expected a disclaimer of some sort.

Mr Frey is another situation all together. His lie was amazing, for lack of a better word. He told the lie as though he himself really believed it. I watched the Oprah Show when he was on to talk about his book. He never once mentioned embellishment nor did he say that the story was untrue. I remember being so captivated by this man's story, on the edge of my seat wondering what Oprah was going to ask next.

I felt robbed of the experience when it was revealed that his story was a lie and was right there with Oprah when she told her audience what a deciver Frey had been. I shared her anger...but only to an extent.

I was once again captivated by Frey wondering, how someone could invest so much time in the 'art' of lying. He would have gained so much respect for his writing if he just told the truth. He should have just said, "it is a made up story and I wanted to be tha main character". People went out and spent their hard earned dollars on a lie. This is unacceptable. His lie certainly was not white...more of a very bright orange.

lonelygirl15 and John Glassco

I've heard it said that the truth is never clean and hardly ever simple. This anti-maxim applies just as much to writing as it does to real life. A case-in-point is the YouTube series "lonelygirl15", a comedy/drama detailing the life of a fictional teenager named Bree. Although the show was originally passed off as the blog of a real girl, it was soon revealed that it was in fact the work of a small group of amateur filmmakers, led by scriptwriter Ramesh Flinders and filmmaker Miles Beckett.

Although it may not be entirely factual to "lie" in a memoir or blog (as John Glassco and the creators of "lonelygirl15" were both charged), the idea that one must be completely factual strikes me as flawed. The beauty of literature is and always will be its ability to inspire emotions in others. So long as a memoir captures the hearts or minds of its readers, does it truly matter whether it is fact or fiction? As Oscar Wilde once said, "There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written, or poorly written. That is all."

Truth

What is truth anyways? How do we know exactly what or where truth comes from? I mean a person could tell you “the truth” but really feel and think something different. Personally the word, Truth scares me a bit. I have been a person who thought she could always seek truth, but to me it seems like is doesn’t exist sometimes. For example, Lonely girl 15. I searched her on Youtube to see what her blogs were all about. I thought she was real and just another face on Youtube. Then I read the article. It almost didn’t make sense and I didn’t believe it that it was all staged. It makes you think what else is fake out there doesn’t it? To think a male by the name of Mesh Flinders could be writing cheesy scripts on a girl’s life and her stresses and arguments in life, would be so real, and seem so truthful. At some points you thought you really could relate to it. It made me think what else is fake in the world. But in a sense, this guy found away to show his memoirs or ideas through another person’s eyes. He made up this character to unleash himself and his alter ego. So I guess in a sense, its like him directing a short film on things he’s thought up. But this is the part that confuses me. Can I actually call it truth because he does not live like that girl? Let alone he is writing the emotions of the opposite sex? ( He must be one emotional guy) As for John Glassco’s case, he was also someone who posed as someone else. But my understanding is that yes he had a different person, but he still lived his own thoughts and experiences. It was different to read about and kind of different to explain the difference. It made me think about people and alter egos. Maybe we do have the power to know what truth is and not even be able to live it.

McM

First Post

Hi guys,

This is the class blog. It will be an ongoing class project until the end of the semester. Have fun with it, and don't forget to do the bonus blog assignments.

Best,
Paul