As a reader, I absolutely adored Smith’s choices. I couldn’t stop turning the page. As a writer, witnessing another writer (poet) write like this and so effectively felt freeing and inspiring.
Is asking people to like/follow/share/restack a form of breaking the 4th wall?
(Kidding!) Your examples of where Maggie Smith breaks the 4th wall are fire and I hope to God I will be able to know if I ever know the rules enough to break them. Because we don't always know what we don't know, right? Ahhh... professional help is so valuable!
As I read through the broken walls, I often wondered, why? So I also came up with a few reasons it works for me.
1. Smith uses this device to create an interactive experience. I think, maybe this is a tell-all after all. It often feels as if Smith is letting me in closer than most writers generally do. She's made herself very public. Her form explores narratives, lists, dating-app profiles. She's exposed personal parts of her life most would not share. But she is clever to not reveal everything still.
2. Smith uses this device to create a writerly persona. I think the plot motivation in this book is for her to be respected as a professional writer and as a devoted wife/mother.
3. Smith uses this device to create organic tension/plot. About halfway through the book I began to question her use of dramatic tension. While the book is full of angst, it feels mostly organic. Through the “Every book begins with an unanswerable question” devise, she clarifies what she is wrestling with in these seasons, which is her plot I think. Her unanswerable questions change and even revert back.
4. Why not? Breaking the 4th wall is perhaps another way for her to break free from another possible prison in her life: literary rules. She is finding herself and everything is on the table right now, including the literary rules she may have previously followed. Who taught her the writing rules, anyway? As she machetes her way through new literary territories, I am in awe of her freedom and the literary trails she is blazing.
So many good notes! Thanks for sharing them with us! I like the word “interactive” as you described it. She almost invites the reader to become a character in the narrative with her, which is so genre-defying and fascinating. Love your last one—“why not?” Story-starting words to be sure 😊
I enjoy when an author touches on their writing in a way that serves the greater story of the book. I’m thinking specifically about authors like Shauna Niequist and Kelly Corrigan who might, in the course of an essay, be setting the scene and mention the practice of sitting down to write. They’re not showing their process or offering tips or advice about craft. They’re writers, so the act of sitting down to write or doing anything but writing is part of their life, an important part of the basic scenery. As a writer and a reader, I find that enjoyable and not at all an interruption. Just don’t stop mid essay to tell me about your morning writing routine or offer me advice about how to write more/better. I WILL 100% close the book. That just feels like unsolicited advice. Presumptive and proud.
It can have quite a visceral effect! I think it also changes the audience: narrowing it from readers to only the readers who also consider themselves writers.
Thanks for this thought provoking post. I am not a frequent reader of memoir, but since I love books that shatter forms, I will have to check this one out!
By pulling us readers in through the fourth wall, she gives us the visceral sense of finding our way through the deconstruction of her marriage. I loved how she imagines her life as a play, how the characters names shift with revelations, how this dramatizes the fact that we’re not reading about a fiction but her life. This, I think, is my favorite part of the book—well, perhaps a tie with her icons/artifacts that are so powerful and true.
Your insight + Maggie's breaking the rules = I just purchased my hardcopy!
You Could Make This Beautiful is my mother's day present to myself.
🌷🌷🌷🌷
Happy Mother’s Day to youuuu!
As a reader, I absolutely adored Smith’s choices. I couldn’t stop turning the page. As a writer, witnessing another writer (poet) write like this and so effectively felt freeing and inspiring.
It was sooo fun watching a writer in her element!
A NOTE ON COMMENTING ON A SUBSTACK POST ...
Is asking people to like/follow/share/restack a form of breaking the 4th wall?
(Kidding!) Your examples of where Maggie Smith breaks the 4th wall are fire and I hope to God I will be able to know if I ever know the rules enough to break them. Because we don't always know what we don't know, right? Ahhh... professional help is so valuable!
As I read through the broken walls, I often wondered, why? So I also came up with a few reasons it works for me.
1. Smith uses this device to create an interactive experience. I think, maybe this is a tell-all after all. It often feels as if Smith is letting me in closer than most writers generally do. She's made herself very public. Her form explores narratives, lists, dating-app profiles. She's exposed personal parts of her life most would not share. But she is clever to not reveal everything still.
2. Smith uses this device to create a writerly persona. I think the plot motivation in this book is for her to be respected as a professional writer and as a devoted wife/mother.
3. Smith uses this device to create organic tension/plot. About halfway through the book I began to question her use of dramatic tension. While the book is full of angst, it feels mostly organic. Through the “Every book begins with an unanswerable question” devise, she clarifies what she is wrestling with in these seasons, which is her plot I think. Her unanswerable questions change and even revert back.
4. Why not? Breaking the 4th wall is perhaps another way for her to break free from another possible prison in her life: literary rules. She is finding herself and everything is on the table right now, including the literary rules she may have previously followed. Who taught her the writing rules, anyway? As she machetes her way through new literary territories, I am in awe of her freedom and the literary trails she is blazing.
So many good notes! Thanks for sharing them with us! I like the word “interactive” as you described it. She almost invites the reader to become a character in the narrative with her, which is so genre-defying and fascinating. Love your last one—“why not?” Story-starting words to be sure 😊
I enjoy when an author touches on their writing in a way that serves the greater story of the book. I’m thinking specifically about authors like Shauna Niequist and Kelly Corrigan who might, in the course of an essay, be setting the scene and mention the practice of sitting down to write. They’re not showing their process or offering tips or advice about craft. They’re writers, so the act of sitting down to write or doing anything but writing is part of their life, an important part of the basic scenery. As a writer and a reader, I find that enjoyable and not at all an interruption. Just don’t stop mid essay to tell me about your morning writing routine or offer me advice about how to write more/better. I WILL 100% close the book. That just feels like unsolicited advice. Presumptive and proud.
It can have quite a visceral effect! I think it also changes the audience: narrowing it from readers to only the readers who also consider themselves writers.
Thanks for this thought provoking post. I am not a frequent reader of memoir, but since I love books that shatter forms, I will have to check this one out!
Great post, friend =)
Thanks, Lore! I know you have thoughts 😊
Truly, it’s one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. I loved your insights.
By pulling us readers in through the fourth wall, she gives us the visceral sense of finding our way through the deconstruction of her marriage. I loved how she imagines her life as a play, how the characters names shift with revelations, how this dramatizes the fact that we’re not reading about a fiction but her life. This, I think, is my favorite part of the book—well, perhaps a tie with her icons/artifacts that are so powerful and true.