Should I include reconstructed speeches in my autobiography?
After reading Geronimo’s autobiography, there are many things he did well. The first being he intrigued the reader with his style of writing. To me at least, it was a good interesting read, and something that I would recommend to everybody. The book has many great stories about how he used to live, and what life used to be like in his time. He also added letters that he had received. I think this conveyed better than the speeches, as they were already written out. With speeches, they make more sense when spoken, and have a greater effect. With Geronimo including well written out letters, it worked better than including past speeches. This is because those letters were meant to be read.
Like said previously, the way Geronimo wrote his story was understandable. Although the book was written in a translation, it still is a really good read. A good thing that he did was not include reconstructed speeches. This is good because including these speeches can be time consuming and wasteful. Instead of having to search through all types and iterations of the speeches, using already written texts prove to be easier as their edited and have all the right grammar. Although easy, including speeches can prove to be useful.
However, there are reasons to include the speeches. One reason would be they provide historical insight. When an author includes the right speech, it can help the reader to understand the era. Speeches help people with historical context as well. Readers can also understand the issues people had at that time. Although there are some issues with the speeches, I think they can be helpful, and even help the book be better. If an author can’t convey the same message a speeches can, they should include the speech. It makes it easier for the reader, and the author to include the speech.
There are pros and cons to including the speeches, and some of the pros to me are cons to others, and vice versa. To me, I would include these speeches because it helps the readers better understand the era and what was happening. However, finding the right version of the speech is time consuming and something that a lot of people don’t want to do. Simply paraphrasing could also work as it is less time consuming, and the speech just has to be listened to. But including the real speech script is something that I would do as it provides historical insight and context.
Geronimo had written a great book with lots of good interesting stories. It is a book that I would recommend people read, as it shows what life was like for him in that time, and how he used to get by in life. He has lots of important historic things in the book, like letters and telegrams from very important people. In conclusion, even though Geronimo didn’t include the speeches, I would.
JBSchool 