Wednesday 16 April 2014

The Artist Unleashed: WRITING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (HOW DORIS LESSING HELPED ME WRITE IN ENGLISH) by Helena Halme

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5 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your article. No other language for me, but I have often noticed when an author is from another country or culture. Off to see about your books. Sent by Jessica Bell on Facebook, btw.

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  2. I've never written in another language, although I used to speak fluent Japanese. (Don't remember if I could write it though.) It definitely presents challenges, especially when words and phrases don't translate.

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  3. Alex, interesting comment. I don't translate when I write because I think in English. When I worked at the BBC, I translated from Swedish and Finnish into English and now cannot really do it the other way around. I guess its just the way I've been wired...!

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  4. Hi Helena and Jess - such an interesting read .. being English I'm hopeless with languages and wish I'd been pushed as a child - but to no avail .. I have studied a few and worked with East Europeans back then, and then South Africans .. but I can understand bits and bobs - but really admire those who can do both or more than that ...

    Cheers Hilary

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  5. Jessica and Helena, it was great to meet you at LBF two weeks ago. Being a Siberian explant colonising England, I write both in Russian and English. It is challenging and it is fun. My literary idol in English is Oscar Wilde. Of modern writers, I adore Stephen Fry and Michael Arditti. Helena is spot on about the writer's voice. Writing in a foregn language gives you an advantage: a unique cultural mix in your head and no need to work on uniqueness of your vocie, it's already there.

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“I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.” ~John Mellencamp

“Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace” ~Judith S. Marin

“I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.” ~Paul McCartney

“I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.” ~Charlotte Bunch

“Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth.” ~Sally Kirkland

“We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.” ~Katherine Harris