Saturday, June 02, 2007
Power of PEN
What we have experienced now not only goes beyond our knowledge but also exceeds our ability to imagine. ...The things that are happening to us today are unbelievable.
--Svetlana Alexievich
What I really care about is the relation between violence, trauma, and the loss of language. ...People lose their language or their ability to give an account, to give a narrative of what happened to them, because they lose trust that anyone will care. ... If we are talking about writing and catastrophe, what the writer has to do is give voice to people who have become silent.
--Carolin Emcke
I think there is a cumulative effect---that if we stopped what we are doing, the world would be worse. And if you believe that at all, you have to accept that there is value in the cumulative power of truth-telling, of making and keeping a record, and keeping track of what has happened.
--Philip Gourevitch
People want their lives to make a story.
--Oksana Zabuzhko
[ World Voices, PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers ]
--Svetlana Alexievich
What I really care about is the relation between violence, trauma, and the loss of language. ...People lose their language or their ability to give an account, to give a narrative of what happened to them, because they lose trust that anyone will care. ... If we are talking about writing and catastrophe, what the writer has to do is give voice to people who have become silent.
--Carolin Emcke
I think there is a cumulative effect---that if we stopped what we are doing, the world would be worse. And if you believe that at all, you have to accept that there is value in the cumulative power of truth-telling, of making and keeping a record, and keeping track of what has happened.
--Philip Gourevitch
People want their lives to make a story.
--Oksana Zabuzhko
[ World Voices, PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers ]
