Everyday Life: My Memoir and Behaviour

[RonPrice]

For those with a philosophical bent, studies in biography and autobiography tap into some of the most profound and interesting intellectual issues of our time and previous times; for example, are we the products of nature, nurture or a combination of both? When we come to write the story of a life, be it our own or someone else's, what kinds of plot structures does our culture provide for telling the truest story we can? When do we need to invent our own plot structures, and to what extent is this possible? How true can stories about people be, and how do we know whether they are true or not? Is it possible to be objective about one's own self, or about another human being? What are the limits of confidentiality when putting a life on public record? How, and in what ways, does the experience of having a self, of being a person, differ from one culture to another? Is there any value in leaving behind a voluminous anatomy of self, Such questions, and others like them, reach into central issues of recent literary and cultural theory. Issues pertaining to subjectivity, the social construction of the self, agency, identity, the structures of the psyche, and so on, are all part of this vast territory.

The four books that make up my memoir or autobiography are part of this burgeoning, this dynamic, field. From time to time I will post relevant paragraphs relating to themes at this site.-Ron Price, Tasmania

 

[Fade to Black]

it all sounds fascinating...now i'm just waiting for the punchline.

 

[Mark from Plano]

Find much lint in that navel?

 

[Dakota rube]

I want some of whatever you're smokin' man.

 

[Dedalus]

I'm confused. Is showing admiration for a quote? It looks his screenname is dedicated to the person he is quoting, but I can't find Ron Price in Wikipedia.

 

[lithium180]

Originally Posted by RonPrice

For those with a philosophical bent, studies in biography and autobiography tap into some of the most profound and interesting intellectual issues of our time and previous times; for example, are we the products of nature, nurture or a combination of both? When we come to write the story of a life, be it our own or someone else's, what kinds of plot structures does our culture provide for telling the truest story we can? When do we need to invent our own plot structures, and to what extent is this possible? How true can stories about people be, and how do we know whether they are true or not? Is it possible to be objective about one's own self, or about another human being? What are the limits of confidentiality when putting a life on public record? How, and in what ways, does the experience of having a self, of being a person, differ from one culture to another? Is there any value in leaving behind a voluminous anatomy of self, Such questions, and others like them, reach into central issues of recent literary and cultural theory. Issues pertaining to subjectivity, the social construction of the self, agency, identity, the structures of the psyche, and so on, are all part of this vast territory.

The four books that make up my memoir or autobiography are part of this burgeoning, this dynamic, field. From time to time I will post relevant paragraphs relating to themes at this site.-Ron Price, Tasmania

I'm not sure whom the person is who you are quoting but the above does raise a lot of interesting questions about the nature of the personally and socially constructed self. I frequently find myself reading biographies (though often more for the picture of the historical period that they provide than for the subject of the biography themselves). I often think about the similarities and differences between a subject's point of view about himself and society's shifting historical judgments. Sometimes I speculate about how much of a biographer's own personality (hopes, insecurities) is revealed in their work.

 

[Coho]

Lithium's avatar provides the answer to one of the questions: nature vs. nurture.