Are we artists or just a story we tell ourselves?

I tell myself that a love of writing started when I was at Thames Ditton primary school in the late 1950s. I would stay in the classroom at break times in order to write stories.  As my education progressed, I seemed to spend many happy hours writing history essays or essays on the big names of English literature, for example:  Shakespeare, Milton or Webster. When I left school in 1970, I became almost addicted to getting as many life experiences as I could. After all, I would need them when I became a writer! These experiences included working for a removal company and travelling. In 1971, I went to Israel and worked on a Kibbutz and, on my return went to university where I studied History. It was at university that I wrote my first short stories.

After university, the desire to get "experiences" continued with an 8-year period in Italy, 2 years in Portugal and several years in Germany, and I must say that many of my stories and articles have been influenced by my experiences in these places.  

I could go on and on but I will stop here because the point I want to make is this. Now that I am a writer, am I looking back, creating my own CV as a writer and telling stories to myself? Had I become a banker, would I not have done the same memory cherry picking trick in order to make sense of my life as a banker? Yuval Noah Harari, in his book "Homo Deus" suggests that this is exactly what I have done.  Here is an extensive quote from the book.     

"We see then that the self too is an imaginary story, just like nations, gods and money. Each of us has a sophisticated system that throws away most of our experiences, keeps only a few choice samples, mixes them up with bits from movies we've seen, novels we've read, speeches we've heard, and day-dreams we've savoured, and out of all that jumble it weaves a seemingly coherent story about who I am, where I come from and where I am going. This story tells me what to love, whom to hate and what to do with myself. This story may even cause me to sacrifice my life, if that is what the plot requires. We all have our genre. Some people live a tragedy, others inhabit a never-ending religious drama, some approach life as if it were an action film, and not a few act as if in a comedy. But in the end, they are all just stories."

Well, what do you think?  Whatever it is that you think, a book with a principal character who, quite literally, invents him/herself would be interesting to write about. And would s/he be a hero or a villain?

Comments

[Christopher Anthony GODDARD]

One idea could be a piece telling the story of 'X' as seen through not only his own eyes but also through those of people he has encountered, starting with his parents... a tale of multiple personalities, or the same personality as experienced by other multiple personalities?