Lauren Slater opens her memoir, "Lying", with two words, that's it. Those two words serve as the only sentence in her entire first chapter. She writes:
I exaggerate.
Respond to her first chapter in light of the conversation we had today about authenticity, veracity, and mimesis.
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ReplyDeleteAs simple as it is, in two words Lauren Slater manages to gain my trust and convinces me that her work will be authentic. Through confessing that everything she's about to say could possibly be an exaggeration, in some ways it makes her a more reliable narrator and makes the rest of her work more genuine. Admitting that parts are lies makes me more willing to trust her because I know that she doesn't have anything to hide. Also, I think that her word choice of exaggerate is important as well. Exaggerate implies building off some root of truth yet expanding it into something that may not be true. This makes me believe that I can trust whatever the "Big T" truth of her story is because that's truth that she's building off. "I exaggerate," is her way of saying that she'll do what needs to be done in order for us to understand the "Big T" truth. From this point on in the story, we know that we can't really trust the facts. She establishes that the reader can't count on the veracity of the story. I wouldn't say mimesis is really present in this opener. We aren't really shown anything. This is more telling verses showing; however, her goal in this sentence was to tell us something very important that we must know before reading the rest of her book.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Julia, these first two words make me doubt Lauren Slater. It's a gusty move to have that as an opening chapter. It makes you want to NOT trust her, but it makes you think "Well she wants us to know the truth, right?" She wrote a memoir called "Lying." I feel like when you buy the book you know what you're getting into. However, it makes me feel that the rest of her story will be authentic, if that makes since. She may exaggerate things, but like Julia said, she's going to get her "Big T" truths across to us. I believe she will exaggerate the "Little T's" in order to get the "Big T" across. In the end, I still doubt, because of the first chapter, whether I can actually trust anything she says...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julia because the line "I exaggerate" let's us know up front that this memoir will be authentic. This line allows us to be able to trust her that the Truth throughout the story actually happened to her, even though the truth to the story many not be accurate factually. Relating to her veracity, it is doubtful that there are a lot of completely true things in her memoir, but still at it's heart it was True, which adds to it authenticity. I disagree with Julia on the grounds that the line "I exaggerate" isn't mimetic. I find that this line shows that she is an honest and a somewhat reliable narrator without having to say "I am honest and somewhat reliable", which would be bland and broing. If I had to draw the triange we did in class for this memoir based off of what we know I would draw the dot probably around where The Things They Carried was, except possible a little closer to authenticity.
ReplyDeleteLauren Slater's, "I exaggerate", brings a certain authenticity to her memoir. Already, I begin to trust her. I don't feel the need to question events that occur, as I already know they might be made up. However, I think these events are "real" in the sense that they help to paint the bigger picture and are important. It does not matter that they may not have actually taken place because the author acknowledges that. However, this may mean that the veracity of the story may not be very high, like in The Things They Carried, but that's ok. The lack of veracity may be made up by the authenticity of the memoir. Finally, I would have to agree with Julia on the topic of mimesis. I really feel like I cannot comment on mimesis because all I have read about the book is the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteImmediately when I read this blog, I thought of the memoir "Fragments". The only difference however, is that Lauren Slater admits she lies, and the author of "Fragments" hid it. Unlike "Fragments", which took investigating before realizing the story is essentially not a true memoir, immediately after reading that first chapter, I automatically feel that I should doubt the authenticity and the veracity. Exaggerating is a verb that not only proves everything can't be completely valid (cancels out authenticity), but also proves that some of the facts may be altered (cancels out veracity). The last point of the triangle, Memesis, can still be true after reading the first chapter. This book can still have memesis because even though the story is not completely factual, it can still be a representation of her life. This is in contrast to "Fragments" because the author ended up not living in a situation even close to the one in his book.
ReplyDeleteStarting a memoir with "I exaggerate." is like giving the reader a heads up that everything in the book is not the whole truth. It made me trust the author more because of how up front she was about the veracity of her memoir. This also gave Lauren Slater the license to embellish the truth. She is still going to get the "Big T" truths across, and messing with a few details is not going to make a big difference. Even though the veracity of the story might be low, it is similar to The Things They Carried in that they both have high memetic and authentic scores. I can tell that the authenticity and the memesis of this book are high because of how honest the author is from the start. Also, adding a disclaimer in the beginnning can keep the author from getting in trouble like Margaret Jones and Bruno Doessekker.
ReplyDeleteWith what Lauren Slater wrote in chapter one of her book, I believe that you can only discuss two of the vertices of the triangle we discussed today during class and not the third. The first vertex we can discuss for this first chapter is its authenticity. I think that because she forewarns the reader that she will not truly be writing everything exactly factual, it makes the book very authentic. The fact that she forewarns us about her exaggerations shows that she is not lying and making up a story for a book deal, which shows us that she genuinely wants to write this book as well as she can, even though she may exaggerate a few things. The other vertex that can be discussed is veracity. Obviously from the two words Lauren Slater says, we know that memoir will not have perfect veracity. She will be exaggerating some of the facts and that does take away from the story's veracity. But still, the big T truths of the story will be the same just maybe not the small T truths. The final vertex of our triangle I do not believe we can discuss the mimesis of the story "Lying" from two simple words.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as Lauren Slater says “I exaggerate,” it makes me cautious of her memoir. She tells us immediately that she isn’t conforming to the truth in certain parts of her memoir, so we know right away that there isn’t any veracity. I feel inclined to trust her more because she informs us ahead of time, and if we find something that seems hard to believe, we know that it’s probably not real. In terms of authenticity, I think that her memoir would be very authentic because exaggeration is stretching the truth, not completely making it up. It implies that she’s still telling a real story, but she’s just adding or enhancing details within it to make it more interesting. I can’t really say much about mimesis except for that fact that “I exaggerate” isn’t very mimetic because it is telling us that she exaggerates, it’s not showing us how she does it.
ReplyDeleteBy saying "I exaggerate," Lauren Slater gives the reader a heads up that her story is not completely veracious. Unlike in "Fragments," Lauren Slater goes about not telling the complete truth the right way. Instead of lying and telling the story acting as if it is true she decides to warn us to not accept everything said as total truth. I agree with the way Lauren Slater went about telling her memoir because now she is truly free to make sure we feel what she felt even if that requires a little fiction. By saying she exaggerates she is abandoning mimesis because she decided to not show us but to just tell us. If she showed us though she would have to really lie. Admitting to exaggeration makes her readers wary but believe the story nonetheless. The story can still have authenticity while exaggerating.
ReplyDeleteSometimes very few words say more than a whole paragraph could say. I think Lauren Slater wanted to get her point across and short and sweet. She wanted to let people know that she was going to exaggerate her memoir before they started reading it; thus making them aware that some of her memoir might not be true. By saying, " I exaggerate", I feel that her memoir has some authenticity to it because she is telling the big T truth. She is making her memoir genuine and feel valid. Just by the two words it is hard to tell if there is some veracity to the piece. I don't know a lot of facts that she could of put into her piece to confirm them and make them seem "real". However, the memetic value of her memoir, from the first two words, is high because she is telling the truth and representing the fact that some of her memoir might not be completely true. Also, that some people will just have to accept that. She is giving the public a warning that some of this is made up and to not get offended by it. Basically, I think she is trying to prevent any scandals from happening, like the Binjamin Wilkomirksi incident. Also, sometimes to readers it is more appealing to them, if the book is written well and feels like it has a lot of validity to it; then it is okay to exaggerate some parts of it. Just like those people in the American Jewish groups who supported Binjamin on his book, even though the majority of it was made up.
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a great two words to start off this story. This makes people think that she is telling the truth and being upfront about the way she writes. After reading some of "Fragments," I agree with the fact that she really does like to exaggerate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there IS a point of over-exaggeration. I feel like she is entirely to detailed in her writing. She is not authentic which makes me feel uncomfortable. Although, she has a sneaky way of showing veracity because I read some of her so-called "memoir" thinking everything was legitimate.
Mimesis is not a huge part of the triangle in this scenario. I think the dot (in the triangle) should be placed three-fourths of the way between authenticity and veracity...leaning more towards veracity.
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ReplyDeleteBeing very vague can be a good thing and a bad thing. In my opinion, when someone is very vague, like Lauren Slater, I have doubts pertaining to the authenticity of their statement. The veracity might be present, but there are no other statements, examples or evidence to prove it. In a way, it makes me want to keep reading the memoir because I want to see if she supplies some sort of evidence to back up her statement, "I exaggerate." I want to see if there is a deeper meaning behind her statement. It is a mimetic statement because it represents a common human behavior, exaggeration. I can not tell if it is a well written memoir because I haven't read the rest of the memoir, but in my opinion she needs to supply more evidence and examples of her exaggerations to add authenticity and reinforce the veracity of her statement, making it a more complete memoir.
ReplyDeleteYours truly,
The Boss
In those two words, Lauren Slater managed to grab my attention. I now know not to fully believe everything she says, but I trust that there is a subtle truth to what she is telling me. Much like Tim O'briens' reaction to Rat Kiley's story, I will still get the message of the story, but I will be sure to water it down and take what she says with a grain of salt. However, I will also have high expectations that she will do a great job in telling me the story. From the first chapter on, I know that her veracity will be low, but I have expectations that her story will have a lot of mimesis and authenticity to it. She does not say that her story is a lie, just that it is exaggerated. I would assume that she has exaggerated it to get across the emotions she felt, so the authenticity would be there. Also the exaggeration would still be based off of facts for the most part, so there would be a strong mimesis in her story as well.
ReplyDeleteLauren Slater's first words of her memoir are "I exaggerate". In only two words she already brings a tremendous amount of authenticity to her story. By stating in a strategic way that she lies in her book, it shows that she has a low level of veracity in the story, but if the writing is good, that won't matter. These two things, saying she's lying and good writing, are the only way to pull of a memoir with little veracity. By stating this in the beginning, it makes the me trust her. I know now that the story will have authenticity and mimesis. Also, by stating that she is exaggerating in the beginning of the book, it tells the reader at the start that some of the things in the book aren't true so it doesn't come as a shock later, and nobody will be angry about the fact that she lied in her memoir because she stated it in the book. It takes a exceptional writer to pull this type of writing off and I think Lauren Slater does a quality job using this style.
ReplyDeleteI think that the opening of the memoir, "I exaggerate", gives us as readers a trust with the author. I personally think that there is a level of trust because she is honest with the fact that she exaggerates. It just makes me feel that the rest of the story is going to be authentic, like Annie said. It makes you want to believe her and it seems more authentic. You are aware that she doesn't always tell the truth and exaggerates, but after that is in the open and after you hear her say that, it just makes you want to almost believe what you are reading since she was honest with you. I think Lauren Slater was smart saying that the way she did. If she just told the audience, "i am a reliable and trustworthy person' i don't think anyone would fully believe that, but because of the way she said it, we begin to trust her.
ReplyDeleteLauren Slater's first words are a gamble and cause many different thoughts to surface. First of all, exaggeration is lying to some degree. Like in The Things They Carried, when Rat Kiley tells his stories, he exaggerates a lot and the guys who know him understand this and know what to believe. With an author we have never heard of, we don't know what to expect when they say "I exaggerate." These words show that she is not telling the whole truth, or even the truth at all. Right off the bat we can assume that her authenticity is in the gutter. Her mimesis, however, is much different be cause it is understandable to exaggerate a little. We see that in her "memoir" she touches the readers with the pain of death. This is a good book, but is by no means a memoir.
ReplyDeleteI think that Lauren Slater's first chapter seems at first to say very little, but "I exaggerate." is a very powerful and loaded statement and a bold way to start her memoir. When she writes "I exaggerate," she tells us in advance that her story will be much more concerned with authenticity and mimesis than veracity. However, because she is so honest with us from the beginning, it's easier for the reader to believe that, even though the "truth" in the story might not be true, the "Truth" is. Because she says "I exaggerate" instead of "I lie", we're being told that the events in the book are, as a whole, mostly true. The story isn't fiction, it's just embellished. The big picture of the story is authentic, and its lack of veracity may actually be used to help it be more mimetic.
ReplyDeleteI exaggerate: two simple words that are almost never confessed in normal human conversation. No one wants to admit that history homework didn't actually take them 10 hours; it would distract from the big T Truth of their statement, that history homework is hard! Starting her memoir with a confession hooks the readers and, more importantly, the fact that she chose that certain confession shows that Lauren Slater is very self-conscious of her lack of focus in veracity. Confessing that she exaggerates shows mimesis because that's what all humans do; they exaggerate. Additionally, like withTim O'Brien, her acknowledgement that she is changing the little ts allows the audience to accept her authenticity, her big T, more.
ReplyDeleteThe name of the book makes you doubt the authenticity, but in that first chapter it makes you think that she must want us to know the truth, its just that she doesn't know how to write the truth. Lauren Slater seems like she wants to be as authentic as she possibly can. The veracity in the book will probably be low because she admitted herself she exaggerates (which is a veracious statement). Also the title tells us there are lies. The mimesis of the book is harder to tell by this statement. I think it is realistic in how we talk, because everyone exaggerates sometimes, but I think I would have to read more of the book to answer that question.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the entire first chapter is her confessing that the events of the book are blow out of proportion lets us read the book while trying ourselves to discern for ourselves who much of the book we take as fact, and which parts we disregard. The fact that the title of the book is lying lets us read the book with a gain of salt because we are not sure which parts are made up and which parts are true.
ReplyDeleteThe way I interpret "I exaggerate" is that she is admitting to not telling the full truth, but she doesn't care and to her, it is unimportant. To me, it comes off as pretentious and it seems like she is saying "I am so important that it doesn't matter that I am lying."
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought about the authenticity because she makes you want to think that it is real but she does not exactly know how do that going back to the statement the better writer you are the more you can get away with when it comes to writing. The veracity in the book is low in my opinion because she lets you know that she exaggerates what she knows another reason is the title. The mimesis is a little bit harder to tell because none of us tell the truth ALL the time so, there might be some stretched truth somewhere in here but exactly where we do not know.
ReplyDeleteThe words “I exaggerate”, really like Julia has said give off the sensation of reliability and trust. Using the same affect that Tim O’ Brien had succeeded in creating throughout The Things They Carried seems like a universally reliable way in creating trust. And once more like Julia said the choice of using the word exaggeration suggests an underlying truth.
ReplyDelete"I exaggerate." This opening to a memoir as the first chapter and the only sentence in the first chapter strikes a really strong blow, not necessarily in a bad way though. This opening makes the reader feel as if the author has good intentions by being self conscious of her story-telling. This one sentence and the emphasis put on it by as the first and only sentence in the first chapter of the memoir, really tells the reader that she is trying to be authentic and genuine with us. It shows she really has good intentions, but she wants to own up to something first. I especially love how much and the method of emphasis she uses. It really shows that she is trying to be sincere, yet owning up to not telling the whole truth sometimes. Even though it may hurt the readers' belief of the stories and the veracity of the stories, it still shows that the "Truth" of her stories are true, just not necessarily the particular details. However, in my opinion, just the fact that she admits to not telling the whole "truth", she tells the "Truth". More importantly, this gives her some level of mimesis in her memoir. The author exaggerates the facts to give a good representation. Also the tone of sincerity in her confession shows us that her representation of her life story will also be sincere, which, in my opinion, gives her story very nice mimesis, just not exact mimesis as if the exact scene was happening right in front of us.
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