Fiction at the Root of My Existence

Abstract

<p>In this essay I examine abuse narratives and their impact on narrating my life. The essay is set in the USA, mostly in Los Angeles, of the early 2000s. I focus on the time when I travelled with my then manager in search for music business contacts and the following year promoting my first album, <em>Poverina </em>(2007). The music business itself, as well as the city, evoked disassociation from reality, from places and events. Simultaneously, I describe the impact of a lack of language around abuse and the pre-emptive liberalism of consumer-focused culture in which I, a young songwriter, became an impossible object. The essay examines narrative transformation over time. Considering tellability, interpretation, as well as the unforeseen unfolding of life.<br></p>