Biomythography

What is an autobiography without myth? Aren't my personal myths every bit as important as the historical facts that surround me? I believe so. I know so. Everything that comes into the space I occupy, which is much more than the physical and temporal space we know, is somehow changed by me. My lens alters everything and I add my spin, my own perspective, as pen meets paper or fingers meet keys. Eirkur: A New Spelling of My Name is playing off Audre Lorde's spectacular Biomythography which she (re)creates herself. What is truth and what is fiction does not matter when taking in the work. Emily Dickinson begins a poem by writing, "Tell the truth but tell it slant." All personal narratives are fiction as far as I'm concerned. All memoirists tell a version of the story as they see it. Russian Poet Marina Tsvetaeva did much the same thing in her work, intertwining myth and historical facts mythologizing herself. While I am less eloquent from the authors mentioned, I too am turning to the thought of biomythography/mythobiography. I seek to create my myth of identity and lead the reader down the path of to discover the purposes of this myth. This is not to write I won't be telling the truth. But as Dickinson also wrote, "The Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind--" Welcome to the newest chapter of my blog. (PS: My archiving is messed up-- my old post 1/2003 - 8/2004 should be back up soon.)