A Writing Tip by Clifford Thompson
DUALITY IN THE PERSONAL ESSAY
Duality is the soul of the personal essay.
I sometimes tell students that while the province of speeches and op-ed articles is certainty, the domain of the personal essay is uncertainty. The personal essay represents an attempt, raised to the level of art, to make some sense of life and navigate some of its complexities. The word “complexities” suggests that there is more than one way of looking at a subject, that uncertainty is possible, and this is where duality comes in. To read many of the best works in the genre is to follow along as the writer argues with themselves. The writer of the personal essay does not start out knowing the answer and may not know by the end, either—but if we are reading the work of a master, we are at least given a new way of viewing the question. This duality, then, helps bring about the ultimate achievement of the personal essay, which is when a reader says, “I had never thought of it that way.”
I also tell students that while life is made up of innumerable details that do not necessarily relate to one another, those details, once on the page, take on an interrelationship—and it is the job of the essayist to manage that interrelationship. Here is where duality comes in once more. For each object, fact, or event mentioned in a personal essay, we must understand both what it is and what it means. Duality plays a part, too, in what writers find to be the most vexing part of an essay: the ending. The trick is to say goodbye without closing the door—to leave and yet leave us with something to consider. This makes for a similar duality: the words, and where they lead.
Creative Nonfiction Contest Judge Clifford Thompson’s books include What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues (2019), which Time magazine called one of the “most anticipated” books of the season, and the graphic novel Big Man and the Little Men (2022), which he wrote and illustrated. He is a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Best American Essays, The Times Literary Supplement, Commonweal, and The Threepenny Review, among other places, and his essay “La Bohème” was selected for the 2024 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Thompson teaches creative nonfiction at Sarah Lawrence College and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A painter, he is a member of Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City. Thompson was born and raised in Washington, DC, attended Oberlin College, and lives with his wife in Brooklyn, where they raised their two kids.
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