Lauren Slater’s Lying is easily the most ambiguous texts that I have read thus far. Slater keeps the readers engaged throughout the entire memoir by using memories that she is recalling from her childhood. The reader is initially warned by the validity of the memoir by the title “Lying: a metaphorical memoir”. The word metaphorical makes the reader question what the metaphor is and why would she expose her so called memoir as a metaphor?  As the book begins, Slater chooses to make the first chapter only two words: “I exaggerate”. By putting this as the first chapter, the entire validity of the memoir is questioned. What is she making up? What actually happened?

Continue reading →

When I think of a podcast- I immediately think of my grandfather sitting, reading the paper and listening to NPR. During the podcasts the narrator is the host so naturally, they are present and contributing thoughts and ideas about the topic that was being discussed for that segment. But, with Sarah Koenig’s Serial podcast, her presence in each episode is present, however the argument is how much is she holding back for the listeners, more specifically, how much is she alongside the readers?

Continue reading →

In the preface Joan Didion almost describes herself as a deceiving person, and implies that people that she is interviewing occasionally confide in her but she wants to be remembered as a reporter, which often means the person being interviewed is going to be shed in a negative light.Apparently Joan Didion is perpetually selling somebody out. I find this to simply not be the case. Yes, many could argue that she does not reserve judgement in a majority of her essays but there are a few examples which prove this wrong.

Continue reading →