Autobiography in Fiction

TEFTX13 S ER October 29, 1982 A Journal of Free Voices 75 .0 Autobiography in Fiction 'M GOING TO talk about myself— which, I suppose, is what is ex- I pected of me. But certainly not from the position of defending myself or even from that of a "writer of autobiographical fiction." I'm afraid that definition of me would not be nearly enough. I'm way beyond that. Way beyond autobiography! I've passed on through and come out somewhere else — beyond myself— long ago. So I'm not taking a stand and I do not appear here as an exponent of, or even as a maker of, autobiographical — except in my own way! — anymore than one of what is called "experimental fiction." Yet for me iverything I have ever written, just about, I guess, has been in the nature of experiment — most of the time. My question has been, and keeps being, "How in the world will I do it? Well, let me try this, let me try that." I've really been experimenting to see if I could write — at all — what I had in mind, whatever vision I had, whatever it was that was obviously pushing me to get the design of, to get some meaning of — and some relief from, some peace, so it would let me alone. So it's all been an experiment — and, finally, invention, imagination, fabrication — way beyond where I started. Drawing by Ancel Nunn And I ask myself — have asked many many times in my writing life — : what would I ever have written had I not come An essay by William Goyen on a time, a place, from that place: what would I have ever written had I not heard those people and a people speaking that speech, telling those stories? had I not carried, after escape from that place and those people to other graphical writing? Milos Kundera, the — foreign — places: a garden in Rome, a Would my feeling about writing have Czech writer (The Book of Laughter and bed-sitting room in Zurich, a basement in been any different? : that to write is to recreate a place and a people, bring them Forgetting.) said in an interview that I London, the image of myself as an exile, read recently, "I always write of Prague, the sense of myself as a refugee from a back if they are gone, lay out losses, show (too late?) redemptions. That to but Prague has become for me a kind of place and a people that haunted and imaginary country. To write a novel you called back? So I ask myself again, what write is to enter that long and close as- sociation with myself, the person closest must be true to your obsessions, your would I ever have written had I not been ideas and your imagination, and these born in that place among those people to my own feelings than to those of any other, on that journey with myself, which are things with roots in your childhood. living in those towns and in those hous- It is the images from your childhood and es, speaking that musical speech, having is more remarkable than any other jour- (Continued on Page 8) those superstitions, telling those tales? ney I have ever taken. What is autobio- • PAGE TWO • Though the publication date for this swer for the governor. Many people, he their material possessions," Ward said. issue runs uncomfortably close to elec- said, are willing to move to where the "It's terribly insensitive . to say go tion day, which means that some Ob- jobs are, but there simply aren't enough out and compete with the kids at server readers in the hinterlands may be jobs available. McDonald's. It doesn't get your kids reading campaign stories after Nov. 2, "In Houston just last week," Ward through college. It doesn't pay the house some campaign incidents just can't go told the Star-Telegram's Smith, "we had note." unnoted. Listen, for instance, to advice 26 positions at Southwest Airlines of- Moving is also difficult, Ward pointed from Gov. Bill to the unemployed of this fered. We had 2,000 people apply for out, because of the depressed housing state. those 26 jobs. We had several hundred market. Families find their homes hard "A lot of these (unemployed) people former Braniff people show up." to sell and then may be faced with higher are going to have to realize they've got to Ward said many of those applying for housing costs in a new residence. In such be mobile," Clements told Fort Worth the jobs were from outside Houston and cases, it may not make economic sense Star-Telegram writer Jack Z. Smith. willing to move there to find work. (Of to move, Ward said. "They're going to have to realize they course, there could have been thousands "They can't afford their homes, and have to go to where the jobs are. I more unemployed Texans home sucking they can't afford to sell them, really," started that kind of modus operandi their thumbs.) Ward said. "They've got years of their when I was 17-years-old and getting out Ward also pointed out that better than lives invested in them." of Highland Park High School. I didn't 70% of the jobs available in Texas pay sit up there in Dallas sucking my thumb. A man who graduated from high only minimum wage, or close to it — jobs I got on a bus and went to South Texas." school during the Depression, who had in the range of $3.50 to $4.50 per hour. to go to South Texas to find a job, who Clements, who rarely misses an oppor- As Smith points out, many are .openings helped support his parents through hard tunity to tell how he got a job as an oil- for work at fastfood restaurants or as re- times, ought to be able to understand the field roughneck that paid $150 a month, tail clerks. For many who have lost difficulities Ward talks about, but appar- $100 of which he sent to his financially higher-paying jobs — Braniff or Lone ently it was all too long ago for Bill strapped parents back in Dallas, insists Star Steel employees, for example — a Clements; if he made it the hard way, there are plenty of jobs available today. minimum-wage job appears a sure path then so can everybody else. "I think first of all everyone has to to economic suicide, Ward said. For That kind of "misplaced Horatio Alger realize that these jobs are available, that such people, the minimum wage cannot ethic" pervades Washington, too, ac- we are creating 200,000 jobs a year," he provide a "living wage," Ward said — cording to Ronald Brownstein and Nina told Smith. He went on to say that some enough money "to keep their cars, and Easton, authors of unemployed persons "may have to do Reagan's Ruling their kids in school, and clothes on their Class. Writing in some jobs they don't want to do." The New Republic backs, and food on the table." (Oct. 25, 1982), Brownstein and Easton Nolan Ward, chairman of the Texas "Even if they work at those make the following ob§ervation: Employment Commission, had an an- (minimum-wage) jobs, they may lose all (Continued on Page 7) TEDBSERyER Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Austin Forum-Advocate. The Progressive Biweekly The Progressive Biweekly Vol. 74, No. 21 7.4Xp October 29, 1982 We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human Editor and Publisher: Ronnie Dugger values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never Co-Editor: Joe Holley will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. 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