22nd
If You Are Going to Write a Book About Your Life…
I was going through stuff on my computer, deleting files, though I hardly need to with 150 gigs to spare, and found this old paper. It’s from African-American Literature, which I had with Steven Moore my junior year. At the end of the semester we were asked to write a one-page paper reflecting on one of the books we had read, which we would read aloud to the class. Even though I liked lots of the books we read in the class such as Invisible Man, Black, White and Jewish, and the Langston Hughes poetry, I still wrote one about a book from the class I DID NOT like. Because it’s funner to criticize things you dislike than things you enjoy. The day of the presentations come to find out Kathryn and I are the only ones who think this way, as everyone else talked about books they liked and how inspirational some pieces of crap were. Anyhow. Here is my reflection.
Lara Morgan - December 13, 2007
If You Are Going to Write a Book About Your Life, You Should Be More Interesting
A Response to The Color of Water
The arts and entertainment industry are becoming more boring. This is because people are sick of over-the-top comedy and mystical creatures and more entranced by stories based on real events. The E.T.s are going down as the Seabiscuits go up, and I cannot stand by and watch this tragic turn of events without doing something about it. Or, I guess I should say that I will not stand by without at least complaining about it.
Like Seabiscuit, which was the biggest waste of two hours I have ever spent on a plane, The Color of Water is an example of a story that is somewhat interesting, I suppose, but not enough to be made into a book. I say if you are going to write an autobiographical story it should have more than just mediocre anecdotes, your life must be filled with barrels of laughs and explosions for you to feel compelled to make other people read about it. For instance, there is a somewhat autobiographical book called Everything is Illuminated that presents a similar story to that of The Color of Water, in the same format of letters written from different people’s perspectives, only it is funny and intriguing. The Color of Water was not funny. Therefore it should not have been made into a book that I would have to read for a class.
Now, maybe I am being a little too harsh on poor James McBride. I mean, the story is kind of interesting. If he were a friend of mine telling me about his childhood and his relationship with his mother, I would most definitely be intrigued. However, being told a story by a friend and reading about it in a book are two very different things. I would not expect millions of people to be interested by my tale of when I threw up in a convenience store in the same way that Kathryn would be. It just would not happen. In conclusion, The Color of Water fails at being an interesting piece of literature, but it would have been a fine Bible Camp testimony.
