I’m sure that a lot of us have heard this timeless philosophical question before.
“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound?“
While largely debated, the most frequent interpretation of this question is summed up by a commenter on this question’s post on the Guardian: “you could say that the definition of a sound is its detection, rather than the physical phenomenon.” It might be a far stretch, but this quote is pretty applicable to life narratives and their effects. Do life narratives matter if no one is around to hear them?
In class, we have been talking a lot about the concept of witnessing, and how a lot of autobiography, especially traumatic, authors’ write to share their stories and spark discussion in areas such as human rights, like Schaffer and Smith talk about in their article Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights. Marjane Satrapi’s purpose in writing her graphic narrative Persepolis as stated in her introduction was to tell people the truth about Iran by showing that the extremists were not the only Iranians in the world. In Achak Deng’s and Dave Egger’s What is the What, Achak clearly addresses an audience in his introduction, by saying, “As you read this book…”.
What if there was no “you”? What if there was no audience? What if life narratives like Satrapi’s and Deng’s just collected dust on a shelf, untouched by human hands forever? Do they matter? Do telling stories matter if there is no one to hear them? Well, in relation to purposes like education or storytelling, life narratives do not matter if there is no audience. If no one is aware of the existence of such life narratives, then the life narratives have not impacted anyone’s lives.
HOWEVER, there may be hope yet. Audiences and their responses may seem like everything in determining the success or value of a life narrative, but I want to point out that something happens when an author writes their life story. Regardless of who may or may not be watching these authors write, and whether or not people are lining up for the release of their stories, it is so crucial to acknowledge that the author wrote the story! In terms of trauma and witnessing, it takes a great deal of courage to use permanent ink and express that yes, my father did abuse me, or yes, I lost my best friend because the police did not like the way she dressed.
In a way, writing your life narrative is like a confession, and confession, I think, is best captured in Frank Warren’s PostSecret site. When people send in their confessions on postcards, they are writing to everyone and to no one. Judging from the massive success of PostSecret, we can assume that there is a purpose fulfilled in just writing. Whether it’s writing to yourself or writing to the air, PostSecret shows that an audience is not needed for life narratives to matter. The fact that authors write life narratives at all makes a difference in the lives of the authors themselves.
After all, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, the grass around it still gets squished.
Loved this post, Allison! I really liked how you brought everything together through a single quote, and I absolutely agree with your take on it as well. A couple years ago, when I was shadowing a therapist for a school project, my mentor taught me the importance of “process”. It is exactly as you have described it, that the most important part of life narrative is the fact that they wrote it, and that they had the willpower to step out and say something. The process itself is the transformation. It is the transition of manipulating feelings into a physical form that makes dealing with trauma possible. Going off your tree idiom, the tree may have fallen, but in the process it has exposed its roots. If you think about it, the roots are the only thing holding it down to begin with – now that it they exposed, the tree is finally “free”.
Thank for writing that, you make me want to write a response post!
Great Post! I really like the comparison you made here! I definitely agree that writing a life narrative can have a huge effect on the author and that an audience isn’t always necessarily needed. This could certainly be exemplified by the popularity of having a diary. Perhaps the reason so many people moved from the traditional diary writing to online writing (blogs, for example) is because the audience is just the cherry on top! Documenting your life is in itself a fulfilling process and having someone(s) to share it with just makes it all the better.