meeting up with Y Ban

I met up with Y Ban and her translator yesterday. She commented that my work was good and could get published here, and that what I wrote would have me thrown in jail 30 years ago (lol)! She also offered to get Vixen translated for $3000 US which upon consideration I don't think it's worth it unless I get a grant to do so. We had an interesting conversation about ghosts, she said that ghosts are living with us every day in Vietnam and that writers have too much freedom and not enough experience nowadays! I also went to a lecture by Huu Ngoc the author of "Wandering through Vietnamese Culture". It was very interesting and entertaining- though the Americans in the audience asked some really grating questions.

crickets and the southern flag

Last night went to Highway 4 and ate crickets! They were barbequed and were crunchy and nutty. We also had samplers of fruit rice wine in apricot cranberry passionfruit and apple which was gorgeous. Talked to Cynthia whom is an accomplished networker whom ran into me at the Bookworm- we did Vietnamese classes together in Australia.
Today had a talk with Huu Ngoc the author of Wandering through Vietnamese Culture. He was doing a lecture on Vietnamese culture and was very entertaining.
I've been thinking about the Vietnamese Southern flag (yellow with three red stripes) and its use at home. At Vietnamese festivals you will see it displayed, and the Vietnamese Community Association has it in its emblem. It's being used as a symbol of resistance against the Communists- however it is problematic in that Diem's regime in the South was oppressive as well. Buddhists immolated themselves in order to protest against his oppression of the religion. I acknowledge that many Southern people fought, suffered and died for that flag. But soon it might be time to find another symbol to identify with- like the Australian flag it has problematic connatations and can be divisive. Something to think about anyway.

Yann Martel and process

Just read an interview with Yann Martel author of Life of Pi and a series of notes he has written for his next novel. It is very revealing about his process for writing. He says that art takes from life and gives it meaning- which I agree with. He does a lot of research for his novels and explores concepts which fascinate him. It took him four years to write Life of Pi (which I love!). You can find the notes and his interview with a collection called "the notebooks". With my own process I'm still trying to work this out. With Vixen I discovered her character first- then put her in history as a backdrop. With my short stories I write by concept- things that fascinate me that i want to explore. I am trying to build a new novel and at the moment I have the characters but not the narrattive framework to put them in. It will come- I have faith if they want their stories told in a certain way they will let me know.

finding the soul

I have been spending some time reading Buddhist texts and other writings such as Thomas Moore's original self. It has reminded me to try and stay in touch with my dreams- of which I remember many. My time at the sangha too has deepened me and I have come to realise that writing and Buddhism are life time occupations and it doesn't matter if it takes me a while to actualise any of it. I have the feeling that what I'm experiencing in Vietnam is planting the seeds for more work to come when I'm back in Australia- and that's a nice feeling.
I have read a discussion about Shantaram on the Sassparilla website- a literary site based in Australia and they talk about the noisy novel as opposed to the quiet novel where it is all in the character's heads and nothing much happens. The person whom posted it said the quiet novel is going out of fashion- which I disagree with. There is an audience for both of these kinds of novels and the person whom can marry both styles together is a genius. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright is a fantastic example of someone whom does both.

writing like cooking

Read more Ursula Le Guin wisdom from an interview on her website. She talks about letting stories grow and gestate, something that I am learning to do organically. In my short stories I need to know what is going to happen in order to sculpt and structure the story. I have yet to master organically writing the novel- I try to plot and plan- the one manuscript I have that grew organically doesn't have an ending! Opening spaces in my stories to expand them is something that I need to do- in order to get a manuscript to be a commercially viable size. I find it comforting reading that even a mistress like Le Guin has 7 or 8 false starts before settling into a first draft. She also says that isolating yourself from life to write is rubbish- which I agree with. After reading Shantaram I want to write a fantasy epic again, and I have chosen a few characters that keep popping up in my short stories to start with. The effect of Buddhism on my writing process is something I have yet to explore- I like the idea of writing mindfully and once you are in flow while you are writing it's hard not to compare it to the meditative state.

women's museum

This morning went to the women's museum which had a temporary exhibition when it was renovating- called Memory of Time. It had objects and pictures from 1945-1975 showing women's contribution to the war. It moved me more than the military museum did, there were pictures of survivors of torture, women in the cages they used as jails, Buddhists on hunger strike and items such as mirrors and baskets used to smuggle documents in. I read Tim O'Brien's story "How to write a true war story" and he says if there is a moral it is not a true war story. I think that is so true. He said that war stories highlight the brilliance of life or some such- I think. I think he means it highlights the good things about life and peace. Or that's what I choose it to mean. I want to write a story about the woman who pretends to be mad to smuggle documents for the National Liberation Front- I've written a short version but I'll write a longer one when I'm not feeling so sad.

the things we carry

Went out for dinner last night with an american academic Doug whom teaches at Hanoi University whom had read Vixen and met me at a bookworm gallery launch. He has met Tim O'Brien the author of "the things they carried" and Tim O'Brien said (and I paraphrase very badly) that there are two kinds of reality, historical reality and story reality. The fiction author is able to condense reality and display it. His story "How to write a true war story" apparently depicts this- I haven't read it yet. Doug is teaching American politics and geopolitical environmentalism or some such and his gut feeling is that Vietnam is very open. Hanoi University is training their students to be ready for graduate schools overseas. He commented however that there is racism towards ethnic minorities the area he wishes to study. He also promoted my book to some Vietnamese-American academics that came over from California too! He also loves ghost stories and we discussed mental illness too- and I mentioned that one of the things I explore is that grey area between the spiritual and the psychotic. Been doing a lot of writing ensconced in the Bookworm bookshop and reading short stories and books that Rob has been recommending to me.

a truth of the matter

I'm currently reading Shantaram, an Australian novel about an ex prisoner whom escapes to Bombay- a true story-and it's far more than the exotic travelogue that it could have been- it has a hard gritty truth about it- it shows the seedy horrible side of India as well as its captivating moments with some real personal reflection in it. I'm very impressed. I read an article by Zadie Smith which was mostly pretension but had two nuggets of worthwhile gold in it- about what makes good writing and (I paraphrase) she says that good writing shows a truth or perspective in it. She also says the self gets in the way- I think this only strikes second novels when you are suddenly aware of yourself as the author and have to put this external perspective created by media and press away. A truth (or reality) that I'm trying to portray in my short story work currently has the theme of coming to terms with or exorcising the past and coming to peace with it. It's hard to not write the same story again and again, I've found I've been doing that lately, but that's what all those other drafts are for.

pottery and TV

Yesterday went to a pottery village Bac Tran (I think) and saw rows upon rows of pottery. We got to make some pots for ourselves- which was more difficult than I expected. Today the Gioi took us to VTV studios to see an interview with a professor from San Jose whom brought over 40 Vietnamese-American students to Vietnam to connect with their cultural roots. As a by the way thing, Mr Lam the director of the Gioi offered to translate some of my short stories and send them to Vietnamese literary journals- so I've sent him the three best ones from the collection I'm working on. I also met the Lady Botham who is a former ambassador to Vietnam and is very relaxed and casual- has excellent Vietnamese and has written her own account of what has happened in Vietnam. In the photo with this entry are the people I went to the pottery village with Tuan is the one in the yellow raincoat whom I met at meditation class.

brother in Hanoi

My brother and Ian are in Hanoi for five days so we've been doing the tourist trail. First Ho CHi Minh's mausoleum then the military museum. Ian works for the Australian War Memorial and comments that it is less biased than the military museum in Hanoi- which featured captured US "puppet forces" planes etc. We went to the Temple of Literature and the next day went to Halong Bay- which was hazier when I was last there but still beautiful. Have been sampling gourmet Vietnamese food (expensive!) and my first trip to a bia hoi- where I was the only woman drinking- something that I would not do on my own. I have also composed an article for Cultural Window the magazine that the Gioi publisher puts out on my impressions of Hanoi- sort of a more fragmented condensed version of this blog. I also met another Vietnamese translator Professor Lien Nguyen from Hanoi University whom teaches American literature and does translation for the author talks at the bookworm. I gave him a copy of the bilingual Fox Fairy story that I have and he will be sending me a novel that he thinks I should read (forgotten the author unfortunately!) I've also met a professor from the US whom is teaching in Hanoi whom may be getting me to talk to some of his history students- he bought Vixen and liked it a lot so met me at a gallery launch at the bookworm!

back at the bookworm

I'm back in Hanoi after a refreshing hot and cool stay at home. My new abode in the room above the bookworm is fantastic, and so are Rob and Truong my hosts.
So far I've been eating some interesting food- hot che with ginger and dumplings which is a clear desert soup with black sesame seeds which is really nice, and taiwaness porridge of all things- with ribs and beef. I've also been writing , wrote two short stories and started sketching the Silence project which I'm working on officially from March this year.
I've also been web surfing and came across what for me is the definitive piece on writing from Ursula le Guin titled "Steering the Craft". I have already discovered that my writing is about change and transformation and this article just confirms it. She also talks about how reductionist the conflict model is for writing stories.
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/SteeringCraft_57B.html