Spurt of memoirs

So Priyanka Chopra has come out with her very own memoir. While it will be hopefully good, and her story may provide encouragement for the many people who are her fans, it is yet another memoir (“Priyanka Chopra Jonas opens up about botched nasal surgery in new memoir: ‘I wasn’t me’,” Feb. 10, Gulf Today).

I am an avid reader and I personally detest memoirs. They seem to take narcissism to another level altogether. Sure, it must be a pleasure to talk about oneself, after all, who doesn’t like talking about oneself? But then taking your story to a whole new level like getting it published and printing it, is, according to me a whole new form of narcissism that is seldom talked about.

The Gen Z and the millennials aren’t spared for their social media presence. Instagram is their stage as is Tik Tok and several other lesser known platforms. However, at every opportunity, the media slashes this narcissism and finds many reasons, scientific and otherwise to undermine the expression of the youngsters.

Social media is a platform of expression after all, albeit a newer one as compared to the written word that has been around for ages. However, the spurt of memoirs in recent times shows that the sense of self that is prevalent on social media has also percolated into old school forms such as publishing.

The ease of getting published (irrespective of the number of readers that will pick up the book) makes for a lot of books out there, more than in the times bygone, where a lot of thought and consideration went into publishing a book.

Vanisha Patel
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