Ken
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Not only am I impressed by your critical perspective on both sides of VN-US war in The Sympathizer, I totally get interested in your statements about VN-US hybridity from your essays and interviews. What do you think about the visibility of contemporary VN-US culture today and maybe in the future without regard to war? -All the best and admiration from a VN student in Germany, who's already ordered your upcoming book
Viet Thanh Nguyen
you can see some of the exchanges happening between US and VN with food and travel (regardless of language). With language taken into account, there is some exchange in music and film, but it's all in Vietnamese, or else it's an American impact on Vietnam. Then there's education, with tens of thousands of Vietnamese students studying in the US. I hope they will have a significant impact on Vietnam when they return.
More Answered Questions
Mark
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I just finished Nothing Ever Dies, and there is a clear and valid argument about how the way we remember wars perpetuates the war machine. But global deaths from war have dropped precipitously over the past 40 years (see https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace/). Is it possible we are also doing something right in how we remember wars that we can build on?
Cameron Redfern
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I read Fatherland in my writing class bought the book. Than decided to buy Nothing Ever Dies, I got my mom to read The Sympathsizer, she loved it . My question is when we meet Man in the book , she is described as a woman , later she is referred to as he when the narrator and Boon are talking about Blood Brothers, I was wondering Why ? and thank you for your wonderful and thought provoking works
Robin
asked
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I'm still working my way through The Sympathizer and I'm enjoying it thoroughly, but it's the message that the book is conveying (or that I think it is) which is really hitting home. My question is; did you write this knowing that societies issues of representation and acceptance are such important talking points at the moment? Was this your way of using past events to illustrate current struggles? Or am I way off?
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