you as your own biographer
Most of us do not have anyone else to introduce us properly, so we introduce ourselves.
As writers or artists preparing for exhibition or review, the process is more formal. We type up those neat paragraphs all the time,
about ourselves,
in third person,
careful not to be too boastful nor too modest.
This reminds me of going to Japan for the first time and reading Lonely Planet’s travel guide descriptions of etiquette. At the time I thought: how odd for a culture to expect such ritualized self effacement in the face of achievement.
Years later this makes perfect sense as I write my biography for this blog or for a fiction submissions somewhere:
“Ms. Johnson received honorable mention here or there,” I write, as if someone else is vouching for me.
All the while, I am wondering if I have evoked the right balance of humility and boldness to coax someone to respond to the words I’ve painstakingly strung together.
test Filed under art, writing | Comment (0)Leave a Reply