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2002-03-27 - 8:25 p.m. Autobiography/ 2 ---------------- ‘All writing is autobiographical.' I once said. ‘Its departures are only by degrees of understatement or exaggeration.’ James doesn't agree with me. He believes that there are certain kinds of writing where one can be completely impartial. 'What about news reports?' he asks. 'The only traces of personality in the report is the writer's by-line. And technical writing? Legal documents?' 'James,' I reply, 'I think you are confusing writing and dictation.' James ponders over what I have said. 'So where do you stand as a writer then? What kind of face appears in your work? Are you the kind who omits details for fear of exposing too much, or is every line embellished so there is something you can hide behind?' 'Both.' 'Then you cannot say your work is autobiographical. By deleting certain aspects, or practising in adornment, you are being dishonest.' I answer him, 'You are talking about the 'truthful' nature of autobiography. But I am talking about its 'true' nature. When I write, it is not so much a painstaking documentation of all that I have lived through, but a testimony of the versions that I can live with.’ James asks, ‘That would be writing through a filter. Why choose that when the aim of all writing is to be honest?’ ‘Because it is the more painful option.’
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