Conclusion His, Hers, Theirs

Abstract

As Doris Lessing has expressed in so many words—a phrase that may be understood in more than one sense—there is no privileged position from which to articulate the “true” version of any experience. Not only do degrees of aesthetic and emotional distance influence the way even the most ostensibly neutral facts are reported but the passage of time inevitably introduces further alterations. The fictitious Anna Wulf’s multiple notebooks and the pseudo-omniscient Free Women sections of The Golden Notebook together demonstrate that experience is not singular but multiple. What can be said depends on who expresses it, when it is expressed, and how and from whose perspective it is aesthetically shaped. Each iteration of the “same” event is a new expression that introduces a slightly different angle, if for no other reason than that one cannot step into the same river twice. The very act of giving literary form to experiences inevitably alters them even as it fixes them in time. Indeed, one result—to our good fortune as readers—is fiction.

“Every novel is a story, but a life isn’t one, more of a sprawl of incidents.” Doris Lessing (Under My Skin)

“But if the novel is not the literal truth, then it is true in atmosphere, feeling, more ‘true’ than this record [autobiography], which is trying to be factual.” Doris Lessing (Under My Skin)

“It was fun to invent and not just report Rose O’Malley. She is almost as dear to me as Doris Lessing once was.” Clancy Sigal (“‘You Can’t Do It!’”)