Life Story Links: January 9, 2024

“We are all virtuoso novelists…[who] try to make all of our material cohere into a single good story. And that story is our autobiography. The chief fictional character at the centre of that autobiography is one’s self.”
―Daniel Dennett

Vintage postcard celebrating the new year (“Bonne Année”) courtesy The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Spaces, stuff, and story

IMAGINED IMAGES
“For Maria Mavropoulou, growing up without a family archive interrupted her sense of belonging, leaving her with the haunting sensation that something was always missing. Rather than accept this lack, she turned to AI to fill in the gaps.”

“DECORATING IS AUTOBIOGRAPHY”
“How do you memorialize the people you loved and lost? Object by object, the CNN anchor is finding out,” reads the intro to this peek inside Anderson Cooper’s home—and how he decides what to keep and, by extension, what to remember.

PACK YOUR MEMORIES
“Reminding people that sentimental belongings—whether a photograph, a figurine, or an item of clothing—matter too could be a small stride toward helping them recover emotionally after a disaster.” Why we should think about adding a meaningful supplement to our disaster kit.

THE DETRITUS OF DAILY DOINGS
“As the blank dates of a new year accrue the granular minutia of our day-to-day stuff, week after week, month after month, the datebook morphs into a retrospective collage that’s as messy as life itself.” A writer on the stories held within her decades’ worth of personal datebooks.

Memoir behind-the-scenes

WHEN SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY RESONATES
“When I write, I’m carrying so much care inside of me. I’m not writing to feel more alone, I’m writing to connect further to all the people who have loved me.”

REVISIONS AND REFLECTIONS
The September 11 tragedy was a major inspiration for Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick’s memoir. When beta readers and her editor asked her to go deeper into how that time impacted her life, she listened.

A WOMEN’S HISTORY
Emma Southon says her book A Rome of One’s Own “is a history of individuals, because, to quote Svetlana Alexievich, ‘this miniature expanse: one person, the individual. It’s where everything really happens.’”

JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY
“The most compelling stories involve a teller amid discovery. Discovery of self. Discovery of new ideas. Discovery of community.” This lesson from The Moth Storytelling School focuses on how discovery plays a role in crafting a story.

Finding yourself in a family history

WHOSE SCRIPT ARE YOU IN?
From movies to novels to our own family history, “as we access the character in that story, we access ourselves in our own stories.” From Psychology Today, thoughts on the healing power of storytelling.

A QUESTION OF LEGACY
“Some of my ancestors had money, and some held awful beliefs. I set out to investigate what I once stood to inherit,” David Owen writes in this piece exploring varied stories from his extensive family history.

FROM WRITER TO CURATOR
“My interest in my grandmother's story has always been about being curious how our own stories change as life unfolds. This moment in history could not be a better example of that,” Rachael Cerrotti said about adapting her book, We Share the Same Sky, for an exhibit currently on view at the Florida Holocaust Museum.