Writing [and Living] in First Person Point of View

Just this week I finished reading the highly controversial book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, written by Amy Chua, a Yale law professor. Although she used extreme discipline in mothering her two girls, I found her dedication and involvement in their lives refreshing. While both daughters were extremely gifted in music, the high expectations worked for the oldest but not so much for the younger one.

About midway through the book, a writing revelation sideswiped me. When I was in journalism school back in the 1970's, this book never would have been written nor published nor promoted. Only fiction writers crafting their characters' dialogue used the intimate first person point of view. The nonfiction realm simply dismissed anything in the personal narrative genre as not appealing to the masses. During my classroom days, I taught students to avoid using the pronouns, I, me, we us, in their writing. Beginning a paragraph with the pronoun I was considered narcissistic. Over the last 40 years our communication has morphed from sterile objective to extremely personal. The journalist in me would hope balance could be achieved [or is it, "we could achieve balance"?].

However I'm thrilled as you should be, too, our God lives in the first person point of view. When Moses was worrying about leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he needed God to get personal:

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 2:13-14, NIV.

I'm thinking if God's memorial name is first person point of view, He approves of our writing [and living] in it.

Joyce

If you've got time, read these reviews of The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The first one is written in the more objective third person point of view while the bottom one is written in first person.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/books/20book.html 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010702516.html