bigWOWO » Writing

YA Literature/Someone Like Summer by M.E. Kerr

jaehwan — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:24:00 +0000

As a writer, it’s always good to read words of other writers–to get ideas on delivery, to develop a sense of rhythm, and to see different perspectives. I’ve mostly been reading literary fiction, so I decided to take a break by checking out the YA (Young Adult) literary scene. My library has pamphlets that recommend books by providing a short synopsis of each book, and when I read the synopsis for Someone Like Summer by M.E. Kerr, I decided to give it a shot because of the interesting storyline: a rich White girl from the Hamptons falls in love with an undocumented Latino day laborer.

This was my first foray into YA literature, and I must say that I was impressed. M.E. Kerr weaves a good story. She truly captures the first love of the rich teenager Annabel dealing with social, racial, and economic class differences. Her portrayal of Annabel’s father and the older generation’s struggle with both inherited racism and economic convergence was spot on. I thought her portrayal of Esteban, the Hispanic dude, maybe could have gone deeper, but I appreciated how she described his love for family and friends. I LOVED how Kerr also included little backhanded slaps as well, giving the finger to George W. Bush for the war in Iraq and taking on institutional racism of certain organizations.

Here’s one last thing I thought was cool–I couldn’t tell anything about the author from reading this book. She seemed to have a great understanding about society, but at the same time, she seemed so in touch with young folk today–talking about Google, cell phones, etc. I figured she was in her mid-forties. I was impressed that an author in her mid-forties was able to so deftly summon her inner teenager.

I was wrong. M.E. Kerr is not in her forties–she was born in 1927, which means that she is 83! Let me put this in perspective–M.E. Kerr was born BEFORE the Great Depression and lived through it. When she was my age (34), the Beatles released their very first smash hit “Love Me Do.” She was two months shy of her 41st birthday when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. And STILL…she can summon her inner teenager even in her 80′s.

That’s skill, something we can all aspire to. Check out this book.

Gettin' Old

jaehwan — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:07:40 +0000

I’ve got bookish people on this site. Most of you read books, and most of you are capable of great things. Some of you have already accomplished great things.

Anyway, I realized long ago that I’m old for an Asian American blogger, but now it looks like I’m old for a novelist too: the NY Times just had an eye-opening article on the ages of great fiction writers when they wrote their great works, and how people should not view the New Yorker’s new issue on up-and-coming writers as an indication that these writers will create greater works in the future:

…the emphasis on futurity misses an essential truth about fiction writers: They often compose their best and most lasting work when they are young. “There’s something very misleading about the literary culture that looks at writers in their 30s and calls them ‘budding’ or ‘promising,’ when in fact they’re peaking,” Kazuo Ishiguro told an interviewer last year. Ishiguro (54 when he said this) added that since the age of 30 he had been haunted by the realization that most of the great novels had been written by authors under 40.

Old, old, old. If any of you are reading this now and are thinking about creating something, do it now. Right now I’m working on a few short stories that will get published hopefully next year. My novel is on hold as I further learn the craft (which I really only started studying in earnest last year.) I like to console myself by saying that I’m immature, but it’s also clear that I’m at a different place in life than most people in their 20′s and early 30′s. I’m getting old in mind AND body too. Sigh.

On a positive note, there are two Asian American writers in the list: Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum and Yiyun Li (who is perhaps the very first major confirmed AF writer who is NOT part of the AFCC). Check them both out.

The Big Shaggy

jaehwan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:52:42 +0000

Excellent article by David Brooks here. It’s about how people tend to forego education in the humanities when the economy is down. Brooks, however, makes a compelling case for why the humanities are still important and relevant in the world today. He writes about how the humanities teach you to communicate, how they teach you the language of emotion, how they help you to understand analogies, and how they put you in touch with the “Big Shaggy,” that human inner beast that causes people to do crazy things. I’m not sure why Brooks named the beast after a character from Scooby Doo, but it works for me. It reminds me a bit of the Hairy Man from Iron John. If that’s where it comes from, I wonder if the imagery is or should be the same for women.

Anyway, I agree with him. Steve Jobs said that the most important class he ever took was a calligraphy class at Reed College, which helped him develop the thinking behind fonts at Apple. He’s not doing too badly these days.

I liked this quote:

If you spend your life riding the links of the Internet, you probably won’t get too far into The Big Shaggy either, because the fast, effortless prose of blogging (and journalism) lacks the heft to get you deep below.

It’s true–you need to delve deep. That’s why I always try to recommend books whenever I can. I also try to recommend travel–to get out of your comfort zone and to meet people face to face. Things look different when you feel another person’s humanity.

I like also how Brooks addresses the fact that not all systematic models work for humanity. Talking about the economics of dating, for example, is fun, but at the end of the day we’re driven by passion not calculations.

If I could do it all over again, I’d do only the humanities in college. Your education lasts you the rest of your life, and it’s best not to make decisions based on short term goals. I think too many Asian Americans and Asian American parents are focused only on survival classes–the sciences, business, law. We need to get in touch with Big ol’ Shaggy Waggy.

Laura and Lisa release book about North Korea ordeal

jaehwan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:00:27 +0000

We’ve been following the Laura Ling/Euna Lee story here since day one. We were here when they were first caught, when they were sentenced (hilarious conversation under this blog post!), and when they were freed (search “Euna” to see all eight of our blog posts). And as many of us predicted early in the game, one of them has co-authored a book about their ordeal: Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home.

For a student of mass media, however, here is the interesting part. When I first heard that Laura and Lisa, as opposed to Laura and Euna, were releasing a book, I asked, “What happened to Euna? Did they somehow cut her out of the picture?” I know–I think we all know–that Lisa Ling is the major player in all of this. Certainly there were lots of people behind the release, but the description “sister of Lisa Ling” certainly helped to bring much more attention to their plight. I figured that Lisa would be wholly necessary to sell books like crazy, and when I heard that Euna wasn’t involved with the book, I thought maybe she either got cut out or somehow fell out.

However, a quick look on the web revealed that Euna got her own lucrative book deal, and she got it before Laura and Lisa. The wonders of capitalism! Let that be a lesson to all you future entrepreneurs–there’s always enough money to go around.

It may not be a bad strategy. Even though she’s not co-authoring with Lisa, Euna’s book will come out after Laura’s, which means that if they play it right, Laura’s book right now will open up some new questions which may create some demand for when Euna’s story comes out in September. And if I were more entrepreneurial, I’d launch bigWOWO’s view of the incident in December. Yeah.

Anyway, you can buy Lisa and Laura’s book here, and you can pre-order Euna’s book here.

Institutional Power and Censorship

jaehwan — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:55:03 +0000

The NY Times had an interesting article a few days ago: How Chinese Censorship Affects Writers in the West. It talks about how China’s influence is growing so large that writers, even those in the West, are censoring themselves out of fear of repercussions from Beijing. People are fearful not of physical violence but of getting on the wrong side of Beijing’s politics. Some writers, after offending China, have allegedly found it hard to get visas to the country, which, if one is a writer with interest in China, can make one’s life rather difficult.

This is how the censorship is developing:

Last fall, in advance of the Frankfurt Book Fair, China pressured organizers to disinvite two dissident writers to a symposium on “China and the World.” (They were reinvited after a public outcry.) But more often, potential critics silence themselves pre-emptively. In a 2002 essay in The New York Review of Books called “China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier,” the China scholar Perry Link described Beijing’s censors as a dangerous creature coiled overhead. “Normally the great snake doesn’t move,” he wrote. “It doesn’t have to. . . . Its constant silent message is ‘You yourself decide,’ after which, more often than not, everyone in its shadow makes his or her large and small adjustments.”

After a while, people get in the habit of censoring themselves.

While I think it’s important to encourage freedom of the press, this soft kind of censorship is nothing new. It’s just a byproduct of institutional power, which China is slowly developing. When you’re on the wrong side of a party with institutional power, you face a soft censorship. Asian American writers have dealt with this kind of censorship for years. Write about Asian American men in a good light? Into the recycle bin! Stories about heterosexual Asian men? Recycle bin! Real stories about real Asian American people doing cool things like beating Vegas? Recycle bin…or we make the main characters White. Stories about Asian women escaping their rapist Asian fathers into the arms of White guys? The marketing wizards will promote and sell your book as the next bestseller!

Sheesh…welcome to our world.

Ed Lin Event Recap

jaehwan — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:04:16 +0000

Byron, author Ed Lin, actress Cindy Cheung

Thank you Thymos, AAJA-Portland, Friends of Portland Chinatown, and Murder By the Book for the awesome Ed Lin event yesterday. Special thanks to Amy Wang, Ruth Liao, Elizabeth Suh from AAJA; Joann Le, Fai Chong, and Ivy Lin from Friends of Portland Chinatown, and Barbara Tom from Murder By the Book. I had a blast. Not only did we get to learn writing from an awesome author, but we also had a chance to hear Ed speak from the heart on his thoughts about the publishing industry and Asian American issues. What is super cool about Ed’s career is that he started from an Asian American perspective, writing about Asian American issues and participating in the Asian American Writers Workshop.

I was impressed most of all by Ed’s generosity of spirit. Some writers are all about helping themselves. It’s about what they can write, how great they are, and how much they‘ve accomplished. Which is perfectly fine–we like writers because of what they write, and if they’re cocky and smug but still happen to be great writers, we still appreciate their writing. Ed, on the other hand, is a gifted storyteller who also believes in mutual support. He has a gift that he wants to share with others, and he actively seeks to share it with others. It was awesome to be a part of that.

Ed was accompanied by his wife, the awesome actress Cindy Cheung. They’re both incredibly nice people, and they shared their experiences in their respective professions–both of which are extremely important in both culture and activism. It’s funny because last week I was going to say something about the different opinions on this YOMYOMF piece and TMM’s response, but I bowed out because I had never ever met an Asian American actor in person and felt that I was unqualified to speak. Actually, I don’t think I had ever spoken to an AA actor until Ed Kahana and Tyler Wang came here from the Stunt People! Now I can say that I’ve actually met an AA actor in person.

I forgot to tell the story about how I first saw Cindy’s acting when I won a copy of Greg Pak’s Robot Stories in a drawing. It was the first and only thing I’ve ever won by chance. It was a Frank Chin screening in Seattle, and I had luck in my favor, but I was so fortunate to win a movie with such a great cross section of talented actors.

Ed Lin’s seminar was the first fiction writing seminar that Thymos has held. Our first two workshops–the first with Lawson Inada, and the second with Patti Duncan/Patti Sakurai–focused mostly on memoir. This one was cool because it focused on crafting fictional stories, and Ed led us through character development and relationships, along with the general structure of conflict and resolution. It was fun not only learning how Ed creates stories, but also to see how he drew them out of the students in the class.

Ed Lin

pic by Ruth Liao

Anyway, I was grateful and appreciative of everything I learned at the seminar. Hopefully we can do this again in the future.

Ed Lin Writer's Workshop on Monday, May 3rd–AAJA, Thymos, and Friends of Portland Chinatown

jaehwan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:00:21 +0000

If you’re in Portland on May 3rd and you love writing, you will want to attend the Ed Lin Writer’s Workshop, presented by the Asian American Journalists Association–Portland and Thymos, co-sponsored by Friends of Portland Chinatown. It is a writing workshop, and Ed will be working to help attendees find their writing muse. It takes place at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on May 3rd, 6pm, at 317 NW Davis in the heart of Portland Chinatown. It’s FREE, and there will be food. RSVP at portland.aaja@gmail.com. Much thanks to everyone who is putting this together.

Ed Lin is a New York-based novelist who wrote Waylaid, This is a Bust, and the recently published Snakes Can’t Run. His novel Waylaid became the award winning movie “The Motel” by Michael Kang and starring Sung Kang.

Note: Ed will also be giving a book reading the day before at Murder by the Book on Hawthorne. Here are the details:

Sunday May 2, 5:00 pm
Murder by the Book
3210 SE Hawthorne Blvd  Portland, Ore.
(503) 232-9995
http://www.mbtb.com/

Heartthrob Blogger

jaehwan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:09:06 +0000

No, I’m not a heartthrob blogger. But the guy in the picture above, Han Han, is. According to the NY Times, Han Han is a Chinese novelist, race car driver, and blogger extraordinaire in China. He’s riling up the authorities with his blog posts that criticize aspects of Chinese society. According to the article, he has managed to escape government censorship by not directly naming people he criticizes or taking aim at the one party system. Also, he’s financially independent because of his book sales and racing success and therefore less susceptible to financial threats.

I’m amazed by some of these Chinese writers. Mian Mian, Wei Hui, Annie Wang, and Han Han–they all get published and reach success at such young ages. Han published his first novel at 19. It doesn’t happen as much in the United States. Witness:

Mr. Han has been reinventing himself since he dropped out of high school and promptly went on to become one of China’s best known writers. His first novel, “Triple Door,” plumbed the adolescent angst of those withering under the pressures of family and school. With two million copies in print, it is the best-selling book of the last 20 years.

Has anyone read any of the new Chinese authors? I was a bit turned off by the subject matter on the advertisements for Wei Hui and Annie Wang. I guess I could check out Han Han, but my own experiences might be far removed from where he’s coming from.

(Thanks, King, for the article!)

The Danger of the Single Story

jaehwan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:22:47 +0000

Etain, thanks for sending this.

In the video above, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie talks about what she calls “the danger of the single story” and how stereotypes can warp a culture’s perception of the people of another culture when there are not many stories told about that other culture. She talks about growing up in Africa reading the stories of Americans and British, and how she felt people like her could not “exist in literature.” She talks about how power comes into the equation, and how stories can make or break the dignity of a people. My favorite quote was this: “The problem with stereotypes is not that they’re untrue but that they’re incomplete.” (around 13 min.)

Check it out.

Where the Money Goes in Publishing

jaehwan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:04:52 +0000

I’m literally years away from finding out what happens when you complete a novel and market it, but if you’re wondering exactly where the money goes when you buy a book at Barnes and Noble, click the image above or check out this informative article by Motoko Rich comparing print and E-books.

If you had asked me a year ago about this article, I probably would argue that the economics are flawed since people invested in a Kindle and who therefore have access to lower priced books might be willing to buy more books. I would argue that there would be more money because of the greater volume. I’m not bullish on the economy these days. It looks like the media in general is hurting. As Anne Rice mentions at the end of the article, however, building a dam isn’t going to stop the inevitable.