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Hello From Cornwall

• August 2007
• Uncategorized

Hi,
I’ve just read your book and really enjoyed it. Liked getting a female perspective on climbing, fear, risk and following your heart.

I am studying an MA in Professional Writing at a university in Cornwall, UK. I am writing an essay on the ethics of writing about real people and wondered if you had any thoughts on this?

For example was there any bits that you missed out as you did not want to offend people you loved or even people you hardly knew?

What do you think about ‘truth’ in writing memoirs – did you have anyone that appears in your book contact you and say – hold on – it wasn’t like that?

Many Thanks
Jen

Dear Jen,
Your essay is really interesting to me! I did my Master’s degree at Colorado State University, and I wrote my thesis on “The Reality of Experience in Mountaineering Literature.” I find it fascinating how two people (or more) can go on the same climb, and come back with sometimes entirely different experiences and memories. It reinforces the idea that “reality” is a very personal, subjective concept. Climbing experiences also expose the many shades of grey in things like time and thought. The only things certain are life and death.

I am strongly attracted to South American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marques, Victor Villasenor, and Isabel Allende, because they write from a very different cultural perspective than the one in which I was raised–a reality in which the physical world and the spiritual world coexist fluidly, and inexplicable events are actually very common and to be expected…..where humans don’t operate with five senses, but many many more. This is a place that seems more natural to me.

One thing I learned early on from reading classic mountaineering books, was that I strongly disapproved of mountaineering stories about conflicts on expeditions, where the writers go into excruciating, fingerpointing detail about who was to blame for the bad team dynamics, and why. After some expeditions of my own, I decided that it’s very bad style to write stories like that, as well as one-sided. In life, any human situation is bound to involve some agreement and some conflict, and those situations are never clear cut. I decided early on that I would rather write stories about my climbing experiences and my thoughts and feelings, than things I didn’t like about others. A trip is never all one thing. Disagreements may happen–it’s important to remember that experiences are fleeting and highly subjective, but the written word becomes history, no matter how subjective or inaccurate it might be. Ruffled feathers among friends will smooth over time, but written stories stay unchanged. Ultimately, climbing is impossible to quantify or qualify, but its greatest value is in connection–with the world, with the self, and with others. Ethically, there are many valid approaches to take in writing, but one thing everyone can agree on is the importance of compassion.

So to answer your question about not wanting to offend or criticize people in my book, I always try to give other people the benefit of the doubt, and deeply examine myself in conflict situations. I think the people I have met along the way are some of the most impressive, wonderful people in the world, and I am lucky to have had adventures with them. So far, they all seem very pleased to be in High Infatuation. Oddly enough, in the one part of the book where I really needed to reference some conflict I once experienced on a route, I found that I just can’t remember the people’s names! I have such a terrible memory, sometimes 😉

Thanks for such an interesting letter. I’d love to hear about your direction, in your essay, and good luck with your program!
take care,
xx Steph