The Art of Time in Memoir by Sven Birkerts explores many concepts about what makes a memoir emphasizing especially reflection in memoirs. Birkerts dubs what he calls the “ double vantage point” as one of the most key aspects in a memoir. He explains this concept as featuring writer reflecting on their past and trying to gain a better perspective. Birkerts writes that “the past can deepen and give authority to the present'(Birkerts 6), meaning that it is a writer’s current perspective that most strengthens their reflections on the past.
There are a few major reasons why “the double vantage point” is so important to memoir. Birkerts states, “This manipulation of the double vantage point is the memoirist’s single most powerful and adaptable technique, allowing for complex temporal access”(Birkerts17). Here, Birkerts seems to highlight how the use of the double vantage point allows for more complex storytelling. Birkerts also explains that “the double vantage point” is so important in memoirs because, as he writes, “To stay in one vantage point is to foreground the fictional illusionism; to play the hindsight perspective against it is to undercut the illusionism by emphasizing the revision of perspectives and the incorporation of relativism”(Birkerts 17). Birkerts draws attention to the idea that if the memoirist does not include their current perspective on events of the past, they are weakening their writing.
In “A Drugstore in Winter,” Cynthia Ozick reflects on her past detailing her experience growing up as an outcast, and how reading allowed her to transcend her struggles. In the essay, young Ozick develops a love for reading and, as a result, is able to escape the many harsh realities of her world. There are many times in Ozick’s essay when she employs the Birkerts concept of a dual vantage point. As a young girl, she explains how in love she was with reading stating, “My mother and father are in trouble, and I don’t know it. I am too happy”(Ozick 301). Here we see Ozick use the dual vantage point. As a child, Ozick had no idea what was going on in the world. However, now as an adult looking back with context allows her to see her parent’s struggle during the Depression. Ozick seems to have gained the hindsight now to realize it was reading that distracted her from the issues of her childhood.
Another author who employs the technique of a double vantage point is Joan Didion. In her essay “Goodbye to All That,” Joan Didion recounts the eight years she spent in New York City. Throughout the entirety of her essay, she reflects on several different stories that changed her perception of New York. Didion narrates in her present voice, which gives the impression she has gained some perspective. Some memories, in particular, demonstrate how Didion uses her present voice, such as when she says, “it would be a long while before I would come to understand the particular moral of the story” (Didion 228). Didion’s use of her present voice is what allows the reader to see her dual vantage point. This technique also comes into play when Didion speaks of her initial immaturity in New York citing being in a freezing thirty-five-degree room and being afraid to ask for assistance, “… because I did not know how much to tip whoever might come — was anyone ever so young?”(Didion 227).
Here, Didion adds a side note into her memoir; she comments from present day on her past self. Birkerts’ idea that “the past can deepen and give authority to the present’ can also be seen in “Goodbye to All That”. When Didion looks back on her life in New York she explains she no longer felt young enough to live there. Now that she is speaking about Los Angeles she explains how she felt relief upon leaving New York. At the end of her essay, Didion states that “There were years where I called Los Angeles ‘the Coast,’ but they seem a long time ago”(Didion 238). This not only again exemplifies Birkerts’ idea of a double vantage point but, also seems to indicate that this reflection has given Didion a new perspective on Los Angeles. It seems she realizes that Los Angeles is her home.
‘The Old Stone House’ by Edmund Wilson is a double vantage point reflection of Wilson’s inherited family home in Lewis County, New York. Throughout his essay, Wilson constantly shifts in and out of speaking in his present voice. Because the essay is so anecdote-heavy, these shifts work as he is reflecting on past events. Every time Wilson changes from the present tense to the past tense, the reader is taken back in time. “As I walk around the house, I remember how, sitting on the back porch, she once sang me old English ballads, including that gruesome one, ‘Oh, where have you been, Randall, my son?’”(Wilson 371).
Here Wilson starts in his present voice talking about how he is walking around his deceased aunt’s home. However, he quickly jumps into recounting memories about spending time with his aunt. His technique of shifting like this generates empathy for him, as not only his life stories are relatable, but the reader can also connect to his reflective tendency. Ultimately it is this utilization of tense shifts which allows him to create his narrative about his home. Because Wilson tells his story partially in the past tense, it gives you the sense that he has had time to reflect on his life. He ends the essay stating “So here is where I live: in an old cramped frame house, having failed even worse than my relatives…”(Wilson 372). When Wilson switches back and forth you feel as though he is adding his new insight into what has passed in his life. This adds to the memoir because in order to make sense of the past finding a greater meaning is necessary.
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean recounts what it was like for him to grow up in Montana with Presbyterianism and fly fishing central to his life. Maclean wrote his memoir as an elderly man so much of it is a reflection on his life and therefore he utilizes the double vantage point a lot in his writing. Maclean often uses this technique by interrupting his stories with his current input. For example when he says, “It was here, while waiting for my brother, that I started this story, although, of course, at the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books”(Maclean 63). Here we see Maclean acknowledges that his younger self was less wise than he is now.
Throughout the memoir, Maclean also reflects on his life by often pointing out the things he never understood about his loved ones. Like when he talks about his father: “As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God’s rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty. Unlike many Presbyterians, he often used the word ‘beautiful’”(Maclean 2). Here we see Maclean reflect on his now deceased father. He includes many interesting points, such as how he used the word “beautiful” often. Obviously, deep thought and many years of reflection went into Maclean’s understanding of his father.
In The Art of Time in Memoir Birkerts explains that good memoirs are far more than just exact recounts of past events. Instead, Birkerts makes the claim that the main focus of memoirs is to find greater meaning. This can be done through the authors self-reflection. Birkerts explains how this can be incorporated into memoirs through the changing of vantage points.
