Telling True Stories, Barry, Talese & MacFarquhar | Reading Response

     This section of Telling True Stories made me reflect on my experience as both an English major and an AnSo minor.  Over the past four years I've often felt tension when in an English class because—in class at least—we don't approach a text from an anthropological perspective, and vice-versa in an AnSo class, where the writing is dull and unapproachable. It seems that through reporting, and especially narrative or ethnographic journalism, both artful writing and ethical, in-depth observation are required. "The writers here all report with their heads, their hearts, and their deep practicality" (Kramer, 20). This personal participation, like the reporter who worked as a corrections officer at a prison to get a story, seems both valiant and off to me. The reporting across cultures essay by Victor Merina was so short and succinct.  I wanted more about the problematics and ethical tensions that arrise when trying to capture the narratives of an individual from another culture. All of the sections on crossing boundaries seemed overly simplistic.
     This made me think about something Marin mentioned in class briefly, accelerated intimacy. When I got to the chapter by Wilkerson in Telling, I was psyched to learn more. I think that's my biggest draw to journalism, narrative and creative non, that opportunity for intimacy with a stranger, in both a not-creepy and creepy way. Maybe it's my obsession with food metaphors, but I liked the image of that under-skin layer of the green onion, a part you only use if you have to because you haven't gone deep enough. But the power dynamic that Wilkerson brushed over did make me pause. If it's guided intimacy, forced comfort, it feels manipulative, but I'm beginning to see it as a skill set, not as conniving.

     Reading the two profiles from Barry and Talese and MacFarquhar's piece on New Yorker profiles made me think about the medium or the form of pieces. I loved reading about Frank Sinatra's comeback and cold, but scrolling down a never ending page made me lose interest. I think the New York Times consistently does a great job with breaking up text by having a piece on numerous pages or having images along the left-hand side as you scroll. I was more invested in Sinatra before reading the piece, but because of the snippy sentences and quick breaks, I was quickly won over by Mr. Zinsser. 

     One topic in Telling True Stories that I've been mulling over and would like to discuss in class is the idea of finding a 'universal truth' in your piece. I think this week with the third re-write of our personal pieces, I finally recognized that that was a major aspect of my piece where I was lacking. Hopefully I established some universal truths in a more solid way.