Both Sides Now: Reflections on Writing Zayn Adam’s Biography

Abstract

Biography (hereinafter construed to also include autobiography) is an attempt to reconstruct a life through various biographic means, ranging from, amongst others, access to (archival) records, documents, interviews etc. These fragmentary pieces are of necessity not representative of an ‘entire’ life but constitute some of the component parts which the biographer must use to construct a life. Consequently, the process of biographic writing has an intrinsic, built-in flaw, that is, it is impossible to ‘rewrite’ a life perfectly. Even the notion of perfection is flawed, precisely because what constitutes a life has no inherent definition, life being composed of both visible, and invisible (psychological and spiritual) dimensions, the latter not being readily accessible or available to interrogation because they reside in a non-physical space unless the subject makes this material available through, for example, writing their thoughts down or disclosing them in conversation (at the time, for example, of an interview).Thus, this essay reflects on precisely the difficult journey of (re)constructing a life and creating, like film adaptations of novels do, a particular, nuanced biographic offering that coincides with what perhaps is the biographer’s first goal, merely to ‘write’ about somebody, but which, inevitably, becomes more than just a one-dimensional excavation of personal history, and instead, evolves, not unlike narrative fiction, into a dynamic weaving together of mini-narratives into a story-world, replete with protagonist, multiple characters and a life trajectory. I shall also draw on the works of various experts on biography, such as, Biography as High Adventure: Life writers speak on their art (ed. Stephen B. Oates), Beyond memory: recording the history, moments and memories of South African music (Max Mojapelo and Sello Galane) and Metaphors of Self (James Olney), among others, to help articulate my journey and its unique challenges..