Writing 121

06 April 2016

My Thoughts on Landscape and Narrative- Lopez

I really enjoyed how Lopez related the storytelling such as done in remote villages and
tribes to all storytelling/narration and called for the need of open-ness, ingenuousness, and
honesty as vital cogs in as far as how an audience feels about or relates to the story. It takes it
from the perception of being a narcissistic rambling or an old wives tale to a genuine and
relatable story. That it must have truth, at least as the writer sees it, at its core or there is no
interest or intimacy and the audience starts to lose belief, in turn, losing interest as the author
loses credibility and starts to say, So what? As Ballenger so simply yet precisely puts it. The
match up of this excerpt from Lopez with how Ballenger feels about the academic personal essay
is impeccable and immaculate. One reflects the other like a mirror in how they call for honesty as
the main goal for any kind of storytelling and the personal essay is just that, a personal story.

As I was re-reading Lopez work, one of the paragraphs in particular really stood out to
me as the theme of the message he was trying to convey. It was almost as if it was illuminated
from behind and I started to hear gospel music. I feel this is the Holy Grail, the root, the key to
all of the storytelling or narrative style of writing as well as a necessity in self-discovery
exercises such as personal essays. Lopez states: The intent of the storyteller, then, must be to
evoke, honestly, some single aspect of all that the land contains. The storyteller knows that
because different individuals grasp the story at different levels, the focus .of his regard for
truth must be at the primary one with who was there, what happened, when, where, and why
things occurred. The story will then possess similar truth at other levels-the integrity inherent
at the primary level of meaning will be conveyed everywhere else. As long as the storyteller
carefully describes the order before him, and uses his storytelling skill to heighten and
emphasize certain relationships (Vintage Lopez p.11).

Ballenger believes that writing badly or free writing as well as double Journaling to be
useful tools to bring out a writers ideas more freely and openly in addition to exploring the
relationship between the writer and his subject. Ultimately though, while professing the benefits
of personal essays he reverberates what Lopez believes is vital in all narration saying: Because
it is written with openness and honesty, the essay can be a very intimate form, inviting the reader
to share in the writers often concealed world. The ethos of personal essayists, or their
credibility, revolves around the sense that they are ordinary people writing about ordinary things.
In the personal essay, we often get to face the sweating under the mask. Honesty is one of the
essays primary virtues. (The Curious Writer p.73). I have always been a firm believer in this
and that the storys believability and authenticity are hinged on the narrators. Its a simple yet
important factor that most of us know yet dont really think about: being genuine and honest.
More simply stated, if you think someone is full of sh_ _ do you even hear what they are saying?
No, all you hear is Charlie Browns parents. If youre writing isnt at least genuine, you are sunk
from the get go. I try to employ this belief always in all my writing. Although Ive never done
much free writing or double journaling I am intrigued enough to try it and possibly put it to use
when writing my own personal essay and maybe, just maybe it is even possible for the story
to be more successful than the storyteller himself is able to imagine (Lopez 11)