Bristol Palin Writes Memoir

Memories

Just a few short years ago the Palin children were off-limits to the media. Fair enough, I don't think kids should be brought in to the political fray and I will take it a step further and state that I don't think children should be used as fame-whores for the benefit of the family either.

I had to get a little help from Wikipedia on the meaning of "memoir" when I heard that Bristol Palin has her own memoir coming out this summer entitled Not Afraid of Life, being published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins who has published Sarah Palin's last couple of books.

When I hear the word memoir I immediately think, autobiography, and in Bristol's case, then my second thought is, What? But I am glad to learn that an memoir is not really an autobiography. Wikipedia sheds this light on the subject:

"Memoirs are structured differently from formal autobiographies which tend to encompass the writer's entire life span, focusing on the development of his or her personality. The chronological scope of a memoir is determined by the work's context and is therefore more focused and flexible than the traditional arc of birth to childhood to old age as found in an autobiography.

Memoirs tended to be written by politicians or people in court society, later joined by military leaders and businessmen, and often dealt exclusively with the writer's careers rather than their private life. Historically, memoirs have dealt with public matters, rather than personal. Many older memoirs contain little or no information about the writer, and are almost entirely concerned with other people. Modern expectations have changed this, even for heads of government. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are generally written from the first person point of view."

I especially like Gore Vida and Will Rogers take on memoirs:

Gore Vidal, in his own memoir Palimpsest, gave a personal definition: "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."

Humorist Will Rogers put it a little more pithily: "Memoirs means when you put down the good things you ought to have done and leave out the bad ones you did do."

  

Bristol Palin on DWTS

I know Sarah Palin doesn't care much for President Obama and the way he is running the country, but I will tell you this, these past couple of years have worked out rather well financially for the Palin family. I hope they are smart and invest wisely - this golden ring may not come around again in their lifetime.