True Grit
On Reading Comic Books
How Panel Sizes Convey Time in Comics | Strip Panel Naked
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel + The Bechdel Test
🏳️🌈Pride 2018: In conversation with Alison Bechdel
“It’s not conclusive or definitive. It’s not meant as a serious metric [...] You can certainly have a feminist movie where there’s only one woman — or no women.”
Bri Castellini on how not to use “The Bechdel Test”
Don’t Forget about the Sexy Lamps!
The so-called “sexy lamp test” is another way to gauge female representation in fiction. Read more here (link to fanlore.org/wiki).
Educated by Tara Westover
About Memoirs in General
Article from The Atlantic about the power of memoirs. Read Lindsay Miller’s “The Cultural and Political Power of the Personal Memoir". Quote from the article: “For women, and for gays, lesbians, and other minorities, simply telling the truth about the way we live can be subversive.”
Memoirs as a Way of Dealing with Trauma
She Survived a mass shooting – then created a graphic novel to help others. NPR article (and short podcast) about Kindra Neely’s memoir Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting.
Kindra Neely's memoir about surviving a mass shooting
Pimp by Iceberg Slim
Trailer for the interesting documentary on Iceberg Slim and his impact on American culture, especially themes and aesthetics seen in hip hop.
On Mortified Nation
Embarassed yet?
Check out the Get Mortified site where you can learn more about the project in general as well as the The Mortified Guide series.
Is stand-up comedy a form of memoir?
In the book, we did not explore this topic further, but you can, if you want. Find examples of stand-up comedy and discuss the credibility of the autobiographical elements.
Below are some work questions for Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra special which you can stream on Netflix. Beware though, the content is extremely NSFW, so proceed with caution.
Remember also …
Articles about memoirs in general
“The Problem With Memoirs” by Neil Genzlinger, the New York Times: 28 January, 2011
“But Enough About Me” by Daniel Mendelsohn, the New Yorker: 18 January, 2010
An article from Buzfeednews about Marie Calloway’s what purpose did i serve in your life and its impact on the alt-lit scene and online literature communities: “Marie Calloway Was Reviled By The Internet. Then She Disappeared” by Scaachi Koul.
Memoirs and autobiographies (in no particular order)
Numb to This: Memoirs of a Mass Shooting, Kindra Neely. Little Brown & Company 2022
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan van Ness
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance 2016 (In 2024, Vance would be picked by Donald Trump as his vice president candidate)
The Man Who Listens to Horses by Monty Roberts
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama, Times Books/Random House, 1995
Conundrum by Jan Morris, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Spiegel & Grau, 2015
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Scribner, 1996
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, Grove Press, 2012
Becoming by Michelle Obama, Viking, 13 Nov. 2018
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb W&N, 9 Oct. 2014
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Virago, 2005
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Grove Atlantic, 2018
Choose Your Own Disaster by Dana Schwartz, Grand Central Publishing, 2018
Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat by Patricia Williams, Dey Street Books, 2017
Autofiction
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
10:04 by Ben Lerner
Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee, the Text Publishing Company, 2007
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus (3rd person narrator)
Faction
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote,
The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer, 1968
The Wall (1950) and Hiroshima (1946) by John Richard Hersey
Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) by Alex Haley
The Valachi Papers (1969), Underboss (1997), and Serpico (1972) by Peter Maas
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Penguin Classics, June 1, 1999
Documentaries that arguably work as memoirs
Shut Up and Sing dir. Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck (2006)
Capturing the Friedmans dir. Andrew Jarecki (2003)
Podcasts
The Heart: “No” (4 episodes from 10 May, 24 May, 7 June, and 14 June, respectively)