6个字的回忆录(有声)

For the past several years, two editors from the storytelling site Smith Magazine have challenged their readers to write their lives in just six words.

Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith have joined us before to talk about their mini-memoir collections. The first one was "Not Quite What I Was Planning," and "Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak."

And now the pair are back with us again for the latest addition in their series: "It All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs From Writers Famous and Obscure." From author Frank McCourt, the miserable childhood leads to royalties, to "American Idol" Taylor Hicks, from bar singer to Halloween costume, this latest collection tackles life, love, work and everything in between in six words.

If you've got a Six-Word Memoir, share it with us. Our phone number is 800-989-8255, or email talk@. Or you can post your memoirs and read others at our Web site at . Just click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Joining us now from our New York bureau are coeditors Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith. Welcome back to TALK OF THE NATION.

Ms. RACHEL FERSHLEISER (Editor, Smith Magazine): Thanks for having us.

Mr. LARRY SMITH (Founding Editor, Smith Magazine): Nice to be back.

ROBERTS: I got to ask: Why six words?

Mr. SMITH: Well, it comes from a good writer, an old Hemingway legend. As the story goes, Hemingway was once challenged in a bar bet, where all good stories start: Could he write a whole novel in just six words? And he wrote...

Ms. FERSHLEISER: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. And so we decided to take the idea of the six-word novel and give it a new twist for this confessional, voyeuristic age we're living in. Everything seems to be personal stories these days and non-fiction. So we decided to give our readers a chance to do their own.

ROBERTS: Were you surprised at how popular it became?

Mr. SMITH: Yeah, we were surprised. We put the project up at , didn't know what would happen - you know, hundred, 200, a thousand. And it's been over three years, and it's been 250,000 six-word memoirs on the site. And every morning, every day, every live reading we go to, it's completely different.

ROBERTS: Well, what stands out to me reading the book is how many are similar, actually. And I don't know whether that's just the universality of human experience, but there's a lot about, you know, life and death. And it's the ones that stand out as individual that really crack me up, like Dave Barry who says: Journalism? Ha! Just make stuff up.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. FERSHLEISER: I think that one thing...

ROBERTS: Which, ideally, is not my memoir.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. FERSHLEISER: One thing that really came through in all these memoirs and is part of how we liked the title, "It All Changed in an Instant" so much is that people were constantly talking about moments of change, moments of contrast. I used to be one-way, but now I'm another. So I think that that idea is really salient for a lot of people regardless if it's about your career, your family or something entirely different.

ROBERTS: We've got a bunch of callers all ready with their six-word memoirs, and I'm not going to ruin it by asking them to explain them. I'm just going to ask them to read them. Let's start with Cathy(ph) in Detroit. Cathy, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

CATHY (Caller): Hi. Four pregnancies, three miscarriages, baby girl.

ROBERTS: Oh, Cathy, congratulations. That's a nice one. Let's hear from Marjorie in Birmingham. Marjorie, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

MARJORIE (Caller): Hi. Mine is - well, I should explain mine a little bit. I'll see if I have to. So small, yet feels so big.

ROBERTS: Are you very short?

MARJORIE: No. It's - to me, it's about human - the journey of human consciousness, how we're all born feeling like we're the center of the universe. And then, as we grow older and learn more, we realize how much more there is than ourselves.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Marjorie. (unintelligible)

Mr. SMITH: The six-word memoir challenge lets you define yourself as you want to see - other people to see you. So it's really your chance to say: Here's who I am. Here's six words, my essence.

ROBERTS: Which is why it's a memoir, not an autobiography, right? I mean, it's got to have some perspective.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: It's got to have your own point of view in it. It doesn't have to be expository.

ROBERTS: Let's hear from Emily in Mill Valley, California. Emily, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

EMILY (Caller): Hi. My memoirs are also my epitaph. Gave in, gave up, gave out. Enough said.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SMITH: And it's a journey.

EMILY: (unintelligible) part of it.

ROBERTS: Emily, thank you for your six-word memoir. Let's hear from Felicity in Richmond. Felicity, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

FELICITY (Caller): Yes, hi. Mine is, In God we tryst: a travelogue.

ROBERTS: In God we tryst.

FELICITY: Tryst. T-R-Y-S-T.

ROBERTS: Yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Okay.

ROBERTS: Felicity, I'm not sure I need to know where that comes from.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROBERTS: Thank you for the six-word memoir. Again, the number here is 800-989-8255, or our email is talk@. What are some of your favorites, either from the book or from the ongoing Web site?

Mr. SMITH: Well, one of the interesting things - you know, your last reader - your last listener just brought up God. And so you get these things like: I spell God with two Os, or blame Catholic Church for bad news. So I really like those because Im thinking about God so much it's made me think about things in a new way.

ROBERTS: Its also - I like the perspective on people who are well known. Youll read one of these and not really understand what it means and then youll see the writer - the one from the actor Neil Patrick Harris.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Barney, Doogie, average names allude me.

ROBERTS: Yeah.

Mr. SMITH: Its a real fun moment when we do live events, when you play this video, and first you see the memoir and then the name. So would you believe me anyway? And then the name pops up - James Frey.

ROBERTS: Yeah. (unintelligible) as we know it, as have you all. Lets hear from Barbara in Medford, Oregon. Barbara, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

BARBARA (Caller): Hi. Well, as a - also as a political junkie who is drowning in a sea of rhetoric, mine is: Left, right, hey, wheres the middle?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SMITH: Very current.

ROBERTS: How about William in Hampton(ph), Connecticut.

WILLIAM (Caller): Hey, thanks for taking my call. My own view regarding my life of, you know, Im buying a house, getting married, having kids -what the hell was I thinking?

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROBERTS: You could sum up a lot of lives, William. Thank you for joining us. There are a lot of parenthood themes. Theres a lot of how children changed my life, and weve just heard that from a couple of our callers already. What are some of the other themes that you all keep seeing recur?

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Theres definitely a lot about jobs and careers, a lot about going to school for 10 years and coming out in debt without any actual career in sight. And then also I think a lot about the experiences of our childhood that still affect us. One of my favorites is: Fourth choice to prom, still overcompensating.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. FERSHLEISER: You know, and Larry would say that I err on the side of the nerdy girl memoirs, and that might be true. But I love all the ones that take one specific tiny moment and then extrapolate them to the way you feel about your whole life 20 and 30 years later.

Mr. SMITH: And I really love a lot of the technology ones. And heres something like this, which does what Rachel just said: Bachelor party, YouTube video - wedding cancelled.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROBERTS: Ideally that is not the sum total of that mans life, you know?

Mr. SMITH: But it was a bad day.

ROBERTS: It was a bad day. Lets hear from Shelby in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

SHELBY (Caller): Hi, I am a lunch lady and my six words are: The hairnet - now we are equal.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROBERTS: Shelby, thank you so much. I love, you know, summing up your world in a hairnet.

Mr. SMITH: You cant make that up.

ROBERTS: Well, what do you think it is about having to be so brief? I mean, obviously you need to boil something down to the essence, but six words, its hard.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: It is, but I think that thats what makes them so interesting. Theres no room for equivocation, you know, and after Harvard, had baby with crackhead. She doesnt say, you know, oh, weve had some hard times, weve fallen in with a bad crowd and these things happen, and you just take the most powerful words to get your message across and pack them in there.

Mr. SMITH: Theres a writer who wrote about changing her sex. And her six-word memoir is - she wrote a whole memoir. Heres her six words: Change sexes, same monkeys, different barrel.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Also, she became he, now gets Hemingway.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROBERTS: Is that what it takes?

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Apparently.

ROBERTS: Lets hear from Stephanie in San Francisco. Stephanie, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

STEPHANIE (Caller): Hi, thanks for taking my call. My six words are: She usually took the scenic route.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Nice.

ROBERTS: Usually. Thank you, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE: Yeah, usually.

ROBERTS: How about Dan in Sebastopol, California. Dan, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

DAN (Caller): Hi, thank you. I actually can think of two. The first is the thing I say to my son all the time: Ill be there in a minute. And then the second is: Almost lived up to his potential.

ROBERTS: Almost lived up

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Almost and usually's are very interesting. They leave you a little bit of room to imagine.

Mr. SMITH: That reminds me of: Ask my teenager, she knows everything.

ROBERTS: Well, also, I like the ones that are - that do sort of read like an epitaph, that are things like, I hope theres an epilogue, you know, the kind of looking ahead ones.

Ms. FERSHLEISER: Yes, and we have a little bit of a joke there. The first page is a lot about being published and the last is about epilogues and stuff. One of my favorites is: These years writing about those ones.

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