Love in the Time of Cyberspace Joseph L
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Northern Michigan University NMU Commons All NMU Master's Theses Student Works 2011 Love in the Time of Cyberspace Joseph L. Janca Northern Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.nmu.edu/theses Recommended Citation Janca, Joseph L., "Love in the Time of Cyberspace" (2011). All NMU Master's Theses. 419. https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/419 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at NMU Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All NMU Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of NMU Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CYBERSPACE By Joseph L. Janca THESIS Submitted to Northern Michigan University In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Graduate Studies Office 2011 SIGNATURE APPROVAL FORM This thesis by Joseph L. Janca is recommended for approval by the student’s thesis committee in the Department of English and by the Dean of Graduate Studies. ____________________________________________________________ Committee Chair: Jennifer Howard Date ____________________________________________________________ First Reader: Dr. Paul Lehmberg Date ____________________________________________________________ Second Reader: Dr. Bronwyn Mills Date ____________________________________________________________ Department Head: Dr. Raymond Ventre Date ____________________________________________________________ Dean of Graduate Studies: Dr. Terrance Seethoff Date OLSON LIBRARY NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY THESIS DATA FORM In order to catalogue your thesis properly and enter a record in the OCLC international bibliographic data base, Olson Library must have the following requested information to distinguish you from others with the same or similar names and to provide appropriate subject access for other researchers. NAME: Janca, Joseph Lloyd DATE OF BIRTH: February 18, 1983 ABSTRACT LOVE IN THE TIME OF CYBERSPACE By Joseph L. Janca The opening sections of Love in the Time of Cyberspace, a memoir, recount an affair the author had at the age of fifteen with a much older woman he met via the internet. What follows is a sort of coming-of-age tale centered around the author’s connection to the internet as a social outlet and the rotating cast of women it brings into his life: an heiress to Wyoming oil money; a mousey bookworm who may be too nice for her own good; a troubled, born-again Christian struggling to keep her faith while battling demons from her past. As he becomes obsessed with the idea of meaning something to somebody— anybody—the author ultimately realizes that he must first mean something to himself. Along the way, there are some surprising discoveries, not only about the narrator and the objects of his affection, but about the way technologies have changed how we as a culture socialize—and especially the way we love. i Copyright by Joseph Lloyd Janca 2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis director, Jennifer Howard, for her patience and guidance; my readers, Dr. Paul Lehmberg and Dr. Bronwyn Mills, for their valuable input; Rebecca Johns-Trissler, who helped get the project off the ground; and Dr. Ron Johnson, without whom I never would have fallen in love with the genre of creative nonfiction. This thesis follows the format prescribed by the MLA Style Manual and the Department of English. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………………11 Chapter 2…………………………………………………………………………………19 Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………………………25 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………………………32 Chapter 5…………………………………………………………………………………41 Chapter 6…………………………………………………………………………………50 Chapter 7…………………………………………………………………………………55 Chapter 8…………………………………………………………………………………63 Chapter 9…………………………………………………………………………………69 Chapter 10………………………………………………………………………………..74 Chapter 11………………………………………………………………………………..84 Chapter 12………………………………………………………………………………..89 Chapter 13………………………………………………………………………………..96 Chapter 14………………………………………………………………………………105 Chapter 15………………………………………………………………………………110 Chapter 16………………………………………………………………………………115 Chapter 17………………………………………………………………………………120 Chapter 18………………………………………………………………………………129 Chapter 19………………………………………………………………………………135 Chapter 20………………………………………………………………………………143 iv Chapter 21………………………………………………………………………………152 Chapter 22………………………………………………………………………………159 Chapter 23………………………………………………………………………………163 Chapter 24………………………………………………………………………………168 Chapter 25………………………………………………………………………………170 Chapter 26………………………………………………………………………………175 Chapter 27………………………………………………………………………………180 Chapter 28………………………………………………………………………………185 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………...190 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….192 v INTRODUCTION From Memory to Memoir: On Writing Love in the Time of Cyberspace Creative nonfiction has become one of the most popular literary forms over the past few decades. Readers have increasingly found themselves eschewing fictional tales in favor of those based in fact, grounded in the reality we all share. Despite its growing popularity, it seems that the exact tenets of the genre are hard to pin down. I’ve been a self-proclaimed practitioner of the art for nearly a decade, and even as I prepare to finish up my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction, I still find myself occasionally struggling to explain the genre to the uninitiated, to show them where my own work fits into the grand scheme of things. I’ve encountered many definitions of the genre over the years and, at a basic level, the one common notion seems to be that creative nonfiction is the application of techniques—voice, structure, description, etc.—normally associated with fiction to create a narrative based on true events. Within the genre fall a number of forms: the personal essay, travel writing, literary journalism, memoir, the list could go on. What they all have in common is a focus on immersion, on presentation. They attempt to draw the reader into the story, as opposed to presenting it in dry, objective statements like traditional journalists. Of course, the genre of creative nonfiction has its detractors. Their main criticism is the very notion of creativity being applied to nonfictional material. If the presentation of facts is colored by the author’s experience, isn’t it inherently going to vary from the 1 truth? I once got into an argument with a colleague which, after a few too many beers, became rather heated. He was convinced that there was, in fact, no such thing as nonfiction. He argued that any time we sat down and put paper to pen or fingers to keyboard, the result would be a work of fiction. Even if the author’s intent was to present a factual account, it would inevitably be filtered through that author’s viewpoint and sensibilities, making it impossible to objectively transcribe any event with complete factual accuracy. He was threatening the very fabric of my art, questioning that which I had devoted years of my life exploring and practicing. And he was right. It is impossible to recreate any given moment with one hundred percent objective, factual accuracy. To my mind, the more important factor is intent. A fiction writer sits down with the intent of allowing him or herself to simply make things up, to invent as necessary to tell the story he or she wants to tell. A writer of creative nonfiction must be honest. His or her intent must be to present events in an interesting way, yes, but also in a truthful way. A creative nonfiction author can use knowledge of craft to shape the presentation of facts and events, but must strive to avoid outright invention. This is often difficult, despite one’s best efforts. Consider Annie Dillard, who famously began her seminal nonfiction work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek with a rather striking description of a cat which, years later, she would admit to having fabricated. Many readers felt betrayed in the wake of the revelation, and many questioned whether or not the work could even be considered nonfiction, given the author’s admitted invention. Such deviation from cold, hard fact can be especially tempting in the world of memoir. In fact, the very word memoir has its roots in memory, which is nothing if not 2 fallible. Memory is subjective. Nobody else in the world can recall the past the way we do. Even when an experience is shared, each party involved will have a different take on it. How, then, can one even try to claim that a work based on memory is a work of nonfiction, a work rooted in the truth? I believe the answer, once again, lies in the author’s intent. If we acknowledge that memoir is, in fact, a work of memory and attempts to explore those memories to the best of his or her ability, we are certainly presenting truth while being open about the fact that it is our version of truth that’s being explored. In the process of exploring those memories, exploring our subjective truth, things may occasionally be invented in an attempt to fill in the blanks. If you can’t remember word for word what was said during a conversation that took place five years ago, but you do know that the conversation happened and can recreate dialogue that at the very least captures the spirit of what was said, does that make it any less true? I would say no. As long as it remains true to your memories. As long as you don’t go the route of someone like James Frey, who caused a huge controversy when it was discovered that his supposed memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was highly