“To write
is to fight forgetting.”
Annie Ernaux, Nobel laureate
in literature 2022
Much is made of the impetus to write. Annie Ernaux is primarily
a memoirist, and so the quotation above seems a perfect fit for her motivation.
Fiction writing appears to be more about organizing one’s thoughts, ideas, and
ideals. After all, what is there to forget when it comes to tales of the
imagination?
I maintain that fiction is about truth, our truth, and by
writing our truth down, carved of words-sentences-paragraphs-chapters-novels,
we writers are fighting the human propensity to forget.
Fiction/fantasy is the cloak. The body is our truth as we
make an attempt to chisel and give shape to it so it may be incorporated into
the communal memory.
Fiction is often, nay— usually, bolder, and thus more honest.
Ernaux is exceptionally honest, but in my experience only fiction allows a complete
unveiling.
This is my mini-attempt to record and reveal my personal
driving force. As the number of my years grows, I am fighting forgetting with increasing
ferocity.
