Required Response #1

"We are always fragmented in time." This phrase from Reading Autobiography really struck me; I agree with the idea that we as narrators and characters in our lives can only exist in moments, and that the moment of the autobiographical act is a mere snapshot of how one chooses to express one's life at that moment. Also, it's only possible to express "a life" through events that made up that life - talking about a life without talking about what happened during that life would be pretty difficult. However, I take issue with the authors' assertion that there is no coherent self - certainly I believe the self changes over time, but I don't think that it doesn't exist. First, that would just be too depressing, but second, even if one has changed emotionally, physically, or otherwise, despite the phrase, "a whole different person," change does not make one an entirely separate and new individual. Change is what makes people who they are - there is no completely stable and unchanging self, of course, but I have to believe that the self at the core of a person remains throughout life.