Friday, August 8, 2014

The Phenomenon of Being a Biographer

Just finished a biography of T.S. Eliot (hence why he’s been on my mind lately) and it got me thinking about how strange it must be to be a biographer.

You’re writing about people’s lives, which is pretty meta to start off with. And if you’re writing about a writer, then it’s even more so. I wonder if biographers have a completely different outlook on life, since they have seen and examined so many other lives.

Then there’s also the fact that you are bringing this probably long dead person back to life. The way you write about them changes everything about them. And you don’t even know this person, so what right do you have to portray them in any way? (That’s what I would be thinking, gold sticker to anyone who won’t be thinking this.) You are judged based on this person’s life, and the way that it is portrayed. But despite all that, I don’t think the literary world regards you as highly as a historian or a fiction writer. It’s a tough life.

It just seems so strange and difficult, being a biographer. I don’t think I could do it.

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