When I took the memoir program in 2010-2011, we looked very hard at the nature of reality or 'what really happened,' realizing finally (aided by David Shireld's book "Reality Hunger") that there is no difference between fiction and non-fiction. As one agent told our teacher "Honey, it's all fiction!"
Memoir kind of hung in the middle of those two imaginary concepts. When you write memoir, you write your own story, your own truth. Maybe your story features piano lessons and nuns and maybe there were no piano lessons nor were there nuns, but you need them to tell your story. You can change things around as much as you want so that the story advances as you please.
It's not journalism. Is it truth? So let's say you write a story as you experienced it. And somebody disputes it. Says that didn't really happen. Where's the truth?
That's what Rudy Guliana is talking about. How he doesn't want Donald Trump to fall into one of those 'perjury traps.' Because Trump experienced past events just as he remembers. He's sure of it; it's his truth; it's his memoir. That will not work too well in court where there are some truth standards. Did he get dirt on Hilary at that Trump Tower meeting? Did he ask Comey to go easy on Flynn? He will remember things as he wishes. Way more than most people because he has no moral mooring at all. It will be his truth ... and his perjury.
The Memoir President, I never thought about it quite like that.
Picture from Standout Books; used without permission. I wasn't going to use an illustration because who want that man on my blog. But this is perfect.
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