Dog-eared Wisdom
Lessons from Gay talese
Got in the mail the other day a dog-eared copy of The Literature of Reality. The introduction is by Gay Talese. It's called "Origins of a Nonfiction Writer."
Some bits of wisdom:
"I learned to listen with patience and care, and never to interrupt even when people were having great difficulty in explaining themselves, for during such halting and imprecise moments (as the listening skills of my patient mother taught me) people often are very revealing -- what they hesitate to talk about can tell much about them. Their pauses, their evasions, their sudden shifts in subject matter are likely indicators of what embarrasses them, or irritates them, or what they regard as too private or imprudent to be disclosed to another person at that particular time. However, I have also overheard many people discussing candidly with my mother what they had earlier avoided -- a reaction that I think had less to do with her inquiring nature or sensitively-posed questions than with their gradual acceptance of her as a trustworthy individual in whom they could confide. My mother's best customers were women less in need of new dresses than the need to communicate."
*
"Each of my books, in fact, draws inspiration in some way from the elements of my island and its inhabitants who are typical of the millions who interact familiarly each day in stores and coffee shops and along the promenades of small towns, suburban villages, and urban neighborhoods everywhere. And yet, unless such individuals become involved in crimes and horrible accidents, their existence is generally ignored by the media as well as by historians and biographers, who tend to concentrate on people who reveal themselves in some blatant or obvious way, or who stand out from the crowd as leaders, or achievers, or are otherwise famous or infamous...
"And yet I have always believed, and have hoped to prove with my efforts, that attention might also be paid to "ordinary" people in nonfiction, and that without changing the names or falsifying the facts, writers might produce what in this anthology is called the 'Literature of Reality.' Different writers, of course, reflect differing definitions of reality. In my case, it reflects the perspective and sensibilities of a small town American outsider whose exploratory view of the world is accompanied by the essence of the people and place I have left behind, the overlooked non-newsworthy population that is everywhere, but rarely taken into account by journalists and other chroniclers of reality."
*
"In reading through old newspapers and other antiquated periodicals in the school library and elsewhere, as I sometimes did in my leisure time, it seemed that most o the news printed on the front pages was historically and socially less revealing of the time than that was published in the classified and the display advertising spread through the middle and back pages. The advertising offered detailed sketches and photographs showing the then current fashion in clothing, the body styles of cars, where rental apartments were obtainable and at what cost, what jobs were available to the white-collar and the laboring classes; while the front pages were largely concerned with the words and deeds of many seemingly important people who were no longer important."
*
" ... that gift from my mother: curiosity. My mother also knew that there is a difference between curiosity and nosiness. ... Nosiness represents mainly the interests of the mean-spirited, the one-night-stand temperament of tabloid journalists and even mainstream writers and biographers seizing every opportunity to belittle big names, to publicize a public figure?s slip of the tongue, to scandalize every sexual dalliance even when it bears no relevance to that person?s political or public service."
*
"The telephone, to me, is second only to the tape recorder in undermining the art of interviewing because, among other things, it denies you from learning a great deal from observing a person's face and manner, to say nothing of the surrounding ambience. I also believe people will reveal more of themselves to you if you are physically present; and the more sincere you are in your interest, the better will be your chances of obtaining that person's cooperation."