Blog #2 - Lott and Kincaid Readings

In Lott's "Toward a Definition of Creative Nonfiction", Lott does not give an exact definition of what CNF is because he believes that the only way writers will be able to fully understand this style of writing is by creating our own stories or conducting our own tests. What writers need to keep in mind is that we, ourselves, are the creative elements of our own stories - we are the main character!

Creative nonfiction can take on many forms. Many people decide to write CNF in order to preserve special events in their lives, good or bad, as with the case in Kincaid's "Biography of a Dress". I found that Kincaid used Literary Triangulation in her story because she looked at herself "again and again in many different ways from all angles in order to see itself most fully" (Lott, pg. 274). Kincaid wrote retrospectively looking back to when she was two years old, yet in parentheses explained her thinking and current state-of-mind. She fulfills a significant part of CNF in that she shows rather than tells. Kincaid uses a lot of descriptive words to explain to the reader what is happening, bringing us back to when she was two years old when her mother was making the dress for her.

Another definition that Lott coined for creative nonfiction is to question if the writing is "wisdom, or folly". According to dictionary.com, "folly" is "the state or quality of being foolish, or the lack of understanding or sense". I must admit that I didn't really understand what Lott was talking about with regards to wisdom and folly, but if I had to take a wild guess, I'd say that Kincaid demonstrated this in her writing. She did this because she was writing retrospectively about an event in her childhood when her state-of-mind was that where she was foolish and lacked understanding. She included the remarks in parentheses (ex: "I did not ask then because I could not ask then and I ask now but no one can answer me, really answer me" (pg. 212)) because she wanted to redeem herself and say that she no longer is in the same state-of-mind. She asked the questions 'Why did I do that?', 'What was I thinking?', 'Who was I trying to kid?', and 'What did I hope to achieve?' (Lott, pg. 273) and answered them in her writing by means of the comments in parentheses.