CD3

The life writing section of this course is already shaping to be quite interesting. After a sticky start with CD3 where neither Blake Morrison, Michael Holroyd or Jackie Kay really nailed it in my view, the recordings became a whole lot more interesting with the introduction of Jenny Diski and in particular Richard Holmes. The first part, which I think is better on closer analysis, just didn't have the same pull as the second part does, but does include a few nuggets worth commenting on: 'biographers try to form an imaginative link with their subject.' (Holroyd,M. 2010) and on the morality of biography: 'Who's to say that the dead don't want messengers to tell their story;' and 'verifiable facts can contradict one another. Consider the person who writes that they feel terrible in a diary entry (therefore establishes a fact) then goes out that same night and is the life and soul of the party' (another verifiable fact). 'I have read 'Suits Me' by Diane Middlebrook (the biography) but didn't read it before my imaginative work on Billy Tripton - I like to think there is a border country between the two kinds of work' (Kay, J. 2010) 'A metaphor for immortality - things without an end' (MH, 2010) (re a question about leaving threads left untied in narrative works) You understand but not necessarily the whole story (BM, 2010) (all part of the intrigue.) I will listen again as I believe these CDs are quite helpful. Since CD1 writing fiction - or certainly parts of which were excruciating to listen to, I was quite impressed with CD2 and even more so with CD3