Does anyone on /lit/ find interest in autobiographies and memoirs?
I don't mean coffee table, flavour-of-the-month doorstoppers written by somebody on the chatshow circuit, but actually influential autobiographies/memoirs like Malcolm X's, Kurosawa's, Miles Davis', Michael Palin, etc?
I've always had a fascination for great ones but it seems they don't get that much mentioning around here. What does /lit/ think? Have you read any autobiography/memoir that you wished gained more attention/appreciation?
Pic related. I'm reading it at the moment, I never realised how tragic growing up was for him. He was immensely wise.
I read Charlie Mingus' Beneath The Underdog which was frustrating, distasteful, yet revealing, personal and pretty amusing too. It felt very much like James Joyce if he shot up a whole bunch. I especially liked how Mingus wrote it from the perspective of his consciousness rather than himself, and his discussions with his therapist were pretty interesting too.
Would recommend it if you're open to a lot of sex. I was a little disappointed that he didn't elaborate more on his music or creative process, but overall it's an unusual memoir.
I've just started this and I'm enjoying it. It's pretty interesting to see how he, Stein and others reacted to other writers works. Paints a nice picture of Paris too.
why does nobody share my interest in ten hour holocaust documentaries, /lit/?
George Orwell wrote some great memoirs. The Road To Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London are worth reading, especially if you're poor as shit and need some of that working class motivation.
Essential.
>>7393475
I like them if they're also a technical work like pic related, The Technique of My Musical Language by Olivier Messiaen or Elliot Carter's Harmony Book.
Good: Storm of Steel, Homage to Catalonia
Good enough to read in between exhausting literature: Steve Martin's 'Born Standing Up', Ozzy's autobiography, 'Surely you must be joking mr Feynman'
The ones I read
>>7393483
I had no idea this existed. Thank you.
>>7393483
that night where he nearly died from fucking was batshit crazy. i can't tell what's exaggeration, recollection or complete bullshit with that guy.
if you like art.
I liked Blaise Cendrars memoir The Astonished Man. Apparently you should take his stories with a grain of salt though.
Harry Crews' memoir Childhood - The Biography of a Place was pretty good
>>7393483
I might have gotten that rec from you, it's still on my backlog.
Any other jazz memoirs to recommend?
>>7393606
Not him, but Miles' is hilarious.
I also really like the Monk one (The Life and Times of an American Original)
>>7393606
Charlie Parker.
>>7393606
Miles Davis was a spiteful motherfucker.
He had it all. Looks, brains, money, talent. Fucked up bad with heroin though.
And man did he hate whitey.
Arrow in the blue Arthur koestler
>>7393606
Miles Davis' is essential - he's fascinating. He covers his ideology, recording/performing process, race concerns, drugs, family, sex, art, etc. He really was amazing.
>>7393649
> and man did he hate whitey
You exaggerate, anon. Gil Evans was his best friend. He was cynical about race though - he hated white racists and white people who got rich on black art rubbed him the wrong way too.
>>7393584
Will look into this, Francis Bacon really interests me.
Hunter S Thompson's Hell's Angels counts, right?
>>7393775
Take Hunter with a pinch of salt, he was always off his rocker on drugs. It's semi-biographical but through a heavy drugs filter.
Is there a /lit/ essentials for memoirs or autobiographies?
good thread OP
I've read quite a few of those mentioned: A…Malcolm X, Miles, Hell's Angels and other Thompson stuff, Surely…Feynman, Martin's Born…, all of which I'd recommend.
I've read X numerous times due to how smart he was and compelling his (short) life was; he didn't start on his path until he was ~20, and he was assassinated before he was 40 IIRC, it's mindblowing what he achieved--literally from nothing and in spite of a society that considered him to be nothing. and the redemption from leaving the NOI, precipitating his doom--there's simply never been anyone remotely like him.
anyhow, I enjoyed the Zappa autobio despite not really being a fan, he's just an interesting, smart, guy (apparently there's a bio, too), Iceberg Slim's Pimp, and I think I have pics of the others which I will link
>>7394104
don't go by the movie. this guy can really write.
>>7394110
heh, forgot about this one. what can I say, I fell for the meme. not sure how much of it was made up, but fuck it, it worked on me at the time (this was before the Oprah recomamendation and subsequent outing, for whatever it's worth--yeah, nothing, I guess)
>>7394122
sort of works as a memoir, in a way. brilliantly wittiy.
Has anyone here read Poilu: The World War One notebooks of Louis Barthes?
Sounds super interesting, I just wonder how strong of a writer he was (can't be too hard on him since it's an edited version of his diary).
>>7394127
excellent writing
>>7394135
>>7394138
I scoured the copyright info/title page etc for an as-told-to writing credit, but there was none. He must've had a hell of an editor, because it's a great read. Very misunderstood person. Fantastic insider's account of the Weimar years' boho scene, too.
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
Stop Time by Frank Conroy
>>7394149
>>7394155
this is a little different since it's told by like a hundred people, but it functions as a bio of an entire music scene. the interviewer would routinely juxtapose accounts that contradicted each other, too. a personal favorite, re-read many times
>>7394104
I heard Iceberg Slim's Pimp is amazing. He's meant to have such a fantastic way of expressing language.
>>7394155
Nice choice.
If you're interested in more autobiographical graphic novels, Maus is fantastic.
>>7393475
I have a copy of that. I'm wanting to finish all his available films before I read it though. I think I've seen a little over half thus far.
Not really a book, but if you have yet to read them, James Joyce's lewd letters to his sweetheart Nora are actually amazing. Not just because of how sex-obsessed Joyce was, but he seems to have more power in his language when exploring his love of farts than many authors do when they explore existentialism.
>>7394160
A great bio, winning the only perfect season ever in the NBA is the focus. that Knicks team included later Laker's coach Phil Jackson AND senator Bill Bradley, too. but nothing exceptional about the writing, it's an as-told-to job.
>>7394177
oh, sure, I've read that, too. been years, though, but I liked it. groundbreaking work, but honestly I think Persepolis is better
>>7394173
ya, it can't be missed, very unique. all his other books are accounts of his experiences or other unique, marginalized people he knew, too. never run across them, though.
I’ve got some! I’m just listing these off the shelf, so some are just biographies or semi-fictionalized autobiographies. Sorry about that.
Flow Down Like Silver
Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman
Masters of Doom
Memories of Silk and Straw
The Glass Castle
Papillon
Wind, Sand, and Stars
Rimbaud: A Biography
Perdurabo
Miles
Space is the Place
Leo Africanus
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Just Kids
Disco Bloodbath
The Pillow Book
Frida
The Serpent and the Rainbow
The Orientalist
A Primate’s Memoir
>>7394190
not only is this the most accurate account I've read of how clinical depression feels, the account of his time as a reporter while Saraevo was under siege gave me the only true picture of the Bosnian hell clusterfuck that I only knew from spotty US news accounts when I was a kid. there's a whole chapter about a sniper who has to kill people he grew up with. really fucked up.
>Masters of Doom
the computer hackers? I loved that book!
Anti-SJW: The Memoir.
>>7393762
Check out Legacy of Brutality as well. Series of interviews with Bacon
>>7394222
we all know how NWA felt about him, but I really liked his version of the events, plus he was in the industry his whole life, so there's also a ton of stuff about managing e.g. CCR, Van Morrison and that era, too. He and Eazy were tight up to the end and the perspective he has of him is so different than his public persona. He was a lot more down to earth and chill, smart, than we really knew from how he acted to sell records (though that was real, too.)
think that's all, going to eat now. gobble gobble y'all!
>>7393488
iktf. nobody seems to know claude lanzmann outside of shoah but he's just fascinating.
>>7394241
Thanks anon for these recommendations, will check them out
>>7394241
shit, almost forgot--Marquez's memoirs were, as one would expect, fucking god-tier
> literally no mention of The Disaster Artist
Shame on you, /lit/.
It's equal amounts hilarious, charming, poignant and revealing.
Everyone seems to know of Studio Ghibli but surprisingly it seems that nobody really knows of this book.
>>7394318
I've read a bit off it. I do own both Starting and Turning Point.
>>7394224
really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I think i really appreciated that there was another person in the mainstream who was unafraid to highlight this batshit online culture that screams for blood and censorship whenever something anti-PC is said.
>>7394155
Would also recommend the film but I'm sure most people who have read the book/know of the book also have seen the film.
The Bill Gates bio "Hard Drive" and Apple Confidential are good insights into how we arrived at this point in technology
>>7393475
Kurosawa is enchanting, despite his troubles in life. everything he says just has an air of wisdom about it and he's experienced so much in life. I loved hearing about his interest in painting as a child, his experience when untying a tortured girl only to be shouted at by the child and how he got his first job as an assistant director. i wish i knew more people who knew of akira kurosawa, especially that book
Storming Heaven is a great history of modern psychedelics
Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception and Heaven & Hell are worthwhile if you want texts on Huxley's experimental experience with drugs.
You could read both in a day as together they're just under 100 pages and you can get the PDFs easy-peasy.
Pleasantly surprised that /lit/ has an enthusiasm for good autobiographies. I remember making a thread on autobiographies before that went heavily ignored so it's neat to see this thread doing so well with plenty of great recommendations.
>>7394299
This. Absolutely essential. Tommy Wiseau is clearly mentally unsound.
Bump for actual content
Theodore Roosevelt's The Rough Riders is decent, if not a little dry at times. Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger is one of the best books I've read.
If you're interested in biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris is the golden standard.
>>7394422
There's a bit about his suicidal mother in the middle that really stands out to me for some reason. Might be the drastic change in illustration style, though.
Josef von Sternberg's memoir Fun in a Chinese Laundry is essential Hollywood. The man could write, and he lived one hell of a life.
Growing Up Brady by Barry Williams aka Greg is basically throw-away trash but it's super fun and if you grew up watching the re-runs on UHF tv and have seen all of them 6 billion times like I have then you will enjoy the shit out of the book.
>>7394318
Been thinking about picking up this and Turning Point around my birthday and Christmas, how are the essays and what does he specifically talk about, how much does he discuss something like Lupin or Future Boy Conan?
