Amina Rayan
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Has Edward Said's "Orientalism" inspired or influenced you? I recognize parallels in his writing and "The Sympathizer". Best wishes from Berlin, where I am reading your marvellous debut novel.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
definitely. In fact, I taught an excerpt from "Orientalism" this morning to my class on the Vietnam War. I read Said's book as an undergraduate and used it to study Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." So glad you could detect the influence!
More Answered Questions
Autumn
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Wanted to say that I have used your book "Nothing ever dies" quite often in both of my thesis dealing with Gestational trauma of Vietnamese refugees. One of them specifically for Thi Bui's "The Best We Could Do". I was wondering if you would ever be interested in writing some more theory on subjects of mental health?
Hieu
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Hi Anh Thanh, as a fellow Vietnamese, I can't help but wonder when you wrote your memoir A man of two faces, did you have in your mind a Vietnamese pronoun for the character "You" that you addressed yourself with? Was it a formal like "anh", "bạn", or was it informal as in "cậu", or "mày"?
Rory
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Your book reminded me why I liked books, at a time of great drought of the soul. You write with passion about the driest topics, and your stories are impossible not to relate to on a human as well as an intellectual level. As an aspiring and practicing writer; if I could one day harness the capacity to put my raw thoughts to paper as powerfully and elegantly as you do, I'll call my life well-lived. When did you start?
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Feb 20, 2021 01:07PM · flag