TED talk: The politics of fiction

Just watched the TED talk by Elif Shafak and it raised so many interesting points for me that I don't know where to begin.

For starters though, what I found the most amusing and thought provoking was what she said about writing stories. As an aspiring author myself, it was very fascinating to see someone's whose views were quite opposite from my own. Well, she mentioned that fiction is imaginary and the stories we write not necessarily have to reflect our own; in fact, she disagreed with a popular method of teaching creative writing, i.e. teaching people to 'write what they know'.

If this talk took place perhaps three years ago, I would have totally agreed with her and point people - especially those at home who keep encouraging us to write 'local' stories - to her talk and justify my own fixation with writing fantasy stories that takes place in the U.S. or some other place that is not Malaysia (well, you don't see many books with stories taking place in Malaysia).

But in recent years I learned to observe better, and to be more patient to people, thus discovering the myriad of stories - and some really are stranger than fiction - that take place right here, where I was born. I am particularly fixated with the idea of writing a story about Johor Baru, and perhaps Singapore (these two cities are inseparable, especially if you want to talk about people). Because I feel that people don't know about these stories. I feel that JB and SG are very special places with very unique stories but no one really knows about how they are connected. Or how their people are. Something like that.

I feel this deep urge within me to tell this story - essentially my own - to the world. And I think it will eventually be told, whatever stories I choose to write in the future. I can't hide this part of me, not from something as intimate as my own works.

The latter, though, is something I always forget. I keep trying to find a plot or character or something, through which to tell this story; I keep looking for something concrete and perhaps 'obviously' JB or Singaporean.

Lately, though, I became aware of how uncreative this approach is, and how I really am stuck inside the figurative box. I am exploring other ways of telling this story now, even if I still haven't really give up on the old ideas yet.

Anyway, what was my point again? I think my interest was hooked when Ms Shafak mentioned  how people expect her to write characters like herself, i.e. a Turkish/Muslim woman ('most likely sad', I love her sense of humor), and how she found that weird, even alarming. But that was exactly what I've been trying to do for the past year and more! I've been trying to write about someone like myself, trying to tell my story about this place that I love dearly to the world, but it still isn't working.

But maybe this is what Ms Shafak meant. We shouldn't just 'write what we know', but instead really use our imagination to tell stories - fiction, after all, is supposed to involve imagination.

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She also mentioned that (paraphrased) 'politics separate, fiction connects', which just hit me like a revelation. I truly believe that statement, and I hope and will work hard to someday make that my vocation - connecting people through stories. That is, after all, why I fell in love with stories in the first place. It plugged me into the world, made me 'connected' to humanity and love and courage and millions of other good things that no website ever did, or could.

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As a side thought, though, I can't help wondering, what of political fiction? Or even fictional politics? Probably not what the context she meant, but a thought worth venturing further when one has more free time.

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Reminder to self: Finish a story before I reach 20! Around two months more now!!