Comments on: The Rumpus Original Combo with Deb Olin Unferth: Part 1, The Interview

By: Sari Botton

Sari Botton — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:59:15 +0000

I can’t wait to read that.

By: Ethan Nosowsky

Ethan Nosowsky — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:34:06 +0000

That’s a joke by the way. I’m actually writing an autobiography.

By: Ethan Nosowsky

Ethan Nosowsky — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:33:46 +0000

SB: Psychner! Yes, of course. That’s all in my memoir, which I will never show SE, so he’ll just have to trust me.

By: Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:17:14 +0000

Yeah but Ethan what do you actually know about memoir?

By: Sari Botton

Sari Botton — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:53:31 +0000

That’s definitely another interesting way of distinguishing the two, Ethan. I just read another good one, over at HTML Giant (here: http://htmlgiant.com/craft-notes/get-me-up-close-to-the-lives-of-others/):

Roxanne Gay writes, “As I understand them, autobiographies recount the entirety of a life lived. Memoir, which takes its meaning from the Latin memoria, to reminisce, is about a moment or series of moments in time that might speak to something greater. Memoirs are more intimate in scope. A memoir tells a close story…”

(Other note completely: do you recall being introduced by Steve Eichner like, roughly 9 million years ago?)

By: John Francisconi

John Francisconi — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:03:53 +0000

Great interview. Artwork, too. Is that portrait at the start by someone who draws for Daytrotter?

By: Ethan Nosowsky

Ethan Nosowsky — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:13:02 +0000

Thanks, Sari! I’d say that autobiography is a more straightforward endeavor based on fact, and that memoir is about the way fact is recollected, the way past events resonate. That’s not entirely true, and of course some autobiographies rise to the level of art and some memoirs really are just about outre or uncommon content, or aim simply to entertain. What it comes down to is that there are good and bad books…

By: Sari Botton

Sari Botton — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:23:26 +0000

Great interview. And interesting take on the distinction between autobiography and memoir – something I think about and talk to ghostwriting clients about often. I look forward to reading the memoir manifesto in Guernica.