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Coming Soon:

The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Monday, February 24, 2014

THE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The latest New York Review of Books has a review of a pair of biographies, of Ava Gardner and Barbara Stanwyck [I am going to make a big leap of faith here and simply assume that everyone knows who they are or were.]  In 1988, Gardner asked writer Peter Evans to "work with her as ghostwriter on her autobiography."  Evans quotes her as saying "I'm broke, honey.  Either write the book or sell the jewels ...And I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels."  Which strikes me as authentic Ava Gardner.  As for the accuracy of what she was telling him, Evans quotes her again:  "It's my f***ing life.  I'll remember it the way I want to remember it."

When I first read that, I was appalled.  Speaking as an autobiographer who labored mightily for accuracy in my own 800 page "memoir," checking Google constantly and making late emendations when Charles Parsons, whose memory is much better than mine, wrote with corrections, I felt a moral imperative to hew as closely to the unvarnished truth as I was able.  It was a point of honor with me not to sugar coat the facts or embellish my life to gain the reader's admiration.

But then I thought:  You know, she has a point.  I mean, it is my life.  It is not a life of Aristotle, or Immanuel Kant, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or Sting.  It is my life.  I have lived it.  I have suffered its sorrows and savored its joys.  Why shouldn't I remember my own life the way I want to remember it?  Let some beady-eyed sharp-nosed hack write an accurate account of my life!

Now, let me tell you about the time I climbed Mt. Everest ...

1 comment:

Michael said...

"I have suffered its sorrows and savored its joys."

Truly a line for the ages.