Nosy Parker
Pico Iyer talks about the value of being an outsider, and how an unfamiliar culture, in this case Japan, transformed his writing.
Japan's "genius for silence and for thinking about others, its habit of self-erasure" caused his sentences to grow " shorter and shorter, and more and more empty, till they looked a bit like that room where I'd slept in the temple. My pages became so quiet you had to lean in to hear them, and, as with any good Japanese, completely unstriking, and neutral on the surface...Image had taken the place of idea."
What is the biggest change a change of scene has had on your writing?
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Belle Yang says:
i am always an outsider
In the US, but feel an outsider in China, too. I am an eccentrics--living on edge, far from the center. That's good position for a writer. Just came home froma book group where I talked and felt very much the outsider, even if I speak English as well -- or better -- than the others.
Each day, I look at Americans from my Chinese perspective, and I study the Chinese through my Chinese world view.
Cheryl L Snell says:
I can empathize with that,
from a once-removed standpoint: I will always be an outsider to my Indian in-laws. Tthe role of the permanently unsuitable bride is an interesting one.
Cheryl Snell www.shivasarms.blogspot.com