Ann Morgan's year reading a book from every country in the world {#TEDTalks every book bloger should watch}

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

It's been a while since I last posted anything for TED Talks  Every Book Blogger Should Watch. I remember we were in the thick of the Travel the World in Books Readathon and someone tweeted this video out. (Was it you? remind me, as I'd love to say thank you!)

The concept is simple: Ann wanted to read one book for every country in the world, all 196 of them! I was very much inspired by Ann Morgan's project. It reinforces my belief that I was taking on a wonderful personal goal of reading stories around the world, written by authors from around the world.

This talk is about 12 minutes and every minute is worth it! I suggest watching through the entire video before coming back to my musings below.

Ann Morgan (AM) at approx. 0:12: It's often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. What do my bookshelves say about me? [..] I made an alarming discovery. [..] Pretty much all the titles on them were by British or North American authors, and there was almost nothing in translation. Discovering this massive, cultural blind spot in my reading came as quite a shock. 

I had a similar wake-up call when I joined in Filipino Friday and was asked if I read Filipino literature. The embarrassing thing is I am Filipino and I could count the number of books read on one hand ... yet I've probably read hundreds of books by North American authors.

Expanding this to the globe, my bookshelf is pretty much the same as Ann's. Go take a peek at your bookshelf and do a quick assessment. It's pretty sobering.

AM at approx. 2:08: I then had to face up to the fact that I might even not be able to get books in English from every country. Only around 4.5 percent of the literary works published each year in the UK are translations, and the figures are similar for much of the English-speaking world.

Again a sobering fact. Even if we endeavored to undertake a similar project like Ann's, most of us would be constrained by the unavailability of the very books we seek out. By default, our reading is already skewed by the biases of the publishing world.

When I started trying to get more Filipino-authored books into my TBR, I remember going on my usual online book stores and realized that they were hard to find or were sold at exorbitant prices (I'm currently based in Canada, I was not willing to spend $30-40 on one book). I actually had to wait for a trip back to the Philippines to buy up a few titles I wanted. (And these are ones written in English!)

AM at approx. 3:54: I was going to have to ask for help. [..] I posted a short appeal online. I explained who I was, how narrow my reading had been, and I asked anyone who cared to to leave a message suggesting what I might read from other parts of the planet. Now, I had no idea whether anyone would be interested, but within a few hours of me posting that appeal online, people started to get in touch. At first, it was friends and colleagues. Then it was friends of friends. And pretty soon, it was strangers.

[..] From Sweden to Palau, writers and translators sent me self-published books and unpublished manuscripts of books that hadn't been picked up by Anglophone publishers or that were no longer available, giving me privileged glimpses of some remarkable imaginary worlds.

I'm honestly not surprised that people went out of their way to help Ann out. I always knew that the reading community is an amazing bunch of people!

AM at 9:24: The books I read that year opened my eyes to many things. As those who enjoy reading will know, books have an extraordinary power to take you out of yourself and into someone else's mindset, so that, for a while at least, you look at the world through different eyes. That can be an uncomfortable experience, particularly if you're reading a book from a culture that may have quite different values to your own. But it can also be really enlightening. Wrestling with unfamiliar ideas can help clarify your own thinking. And it can also show up blind spots in the way you might have been looking at the world.

Amen. These are the very reasons I love to read!

AM at approx. 11:25: If we all read more widely, there'd be more incentive for publishers to translate more books, and we would all be richer for that.

Love that this as become a rallying cry! I'm itching to know whether this project has made an impact on books in translation!

Inspired? Would you take on a project like this? 

Links:

• TED Talks website: Ann Morgan - My year of reading a book from every country in the world
• ayearofreadingtheworld.com
• Join us for the Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge! Sign up over on the sign-up post at Mom's Small Victories HERE. 
• My Book Map where I map all my reads by setting ... I'm getting there!

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

Scott McCloud: The visual magic of comics #TEDTalks every book blogger should watch

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

I recently dug up my copy of Persepolis which remains unreviewed to this day because I'm not quite sure what to say. This rather shocking memoir is presented through a comic strip, and I was nonplussed.

Which got me thinking about comics and graphic novels. Do Archie comics that I'd read in elementary school really count towards reading? I've read so very few graphic novels that I'm pretty much a dweeb. But then the visual component of a book has always had a huge appeal to me (covers for example!), and children's picture books really rock my boat, as does anything authored and illustrated by Nick Bantock.

This TED Talk by comic book author Scott McCloud entitled The Visual Magic of Comics explores the complexity of "vision" that comics can represent and can provide its readers.

Do you read comics ad graphic novels? Do share!

#AusteninAugustRBR and #TEDTalks every book blogger should watch

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

Austen figures quite prominently in TED Talks too. Here are some links that celebrate Jane Austen:

TED Talks to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice - a blog with links to five TED Talks where speakers have mentioned Jane Austen, ranges from atheism to film to Darwinian Theory and a few more.

The top 10 classic fears in literature - a blog and a TED Talk - can you guess which classic fear Austen's Pride and Prejudice illustrates extremely well?

Hannah Fry - The Mathematics of Love - when one talks about love, even a mathematician's take on it, Jane Austen will eventually wheedle her way in ...

Which of these links are you going to click? I'd love to hear what talk you enjoyed the most!

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

Raghava KK says Shake up your story: #TEDTalks every book blogger should watch

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

Did you ever think that children's books have an agenda? In this talk entitled Shake Up Your Story, children's book author Raghava KK shares, based on his own experiences, how he decided to create his own agenda in his iPad children's book. He stresses getting rid of bias and encouraging creativity and hence empathy in our children.

This talk is less than 5 minutes with gorgeous illustrations, and is pretty funny. Those who have young kids, love their technology, or have an appreciation for diversity and how it plays itself out in our lives will get a kick out of this!

"Cover" of Pop-It, Raghava KK's iPad book

What are your takeaways from this talk?

Links:
Raghava KK's website
Pop-It on iTunes

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

Mac Barnett on Why a good book is secret door : #TEDTalks every book blogger should watch

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

We all have our favourite children's book or books. Think about why you loved it so much.

In this talk entitled Why a Good Book is a Secret Door, children's book author Mac Barnett talks about how books can awaken a sense of unabashed wonder in our kids.

Note: This talk is about 16 minutes. 

Mac Barnett at approx 0:11: My job is that I lie to children, but they're honest lies.

An honest lie? White lie? Ok, I'll hear him out.

MB at approx. 4:26: It's what Coleridge called the willing suspension of disbelief or poetic faith, for those moments where a story, no matter how strange, has some semblance of the truth, and then you're able to believe it. It's not just kids who can get there. Adults can too, and we get there when we read.

[..] We know these characters aren't real, but we have real feelings about them, and we're able to do that. We know these characters aren't real, and yet we also know that they are.

Barnett gave some very cool examples of children buying into "honest lies" with such utter trust and a lovely sense of whimsy. So I'm totally buying into his "honest lie" idea. Reading is all about honest lies.

I just wish that I savoured my first readings of some children's books when it was actually happening ... I guess you never think about it when it's actually happening. But the magic of a first read can never really be relived, in my opinion.

The Echo Park Time Travel Mart (photo from here.)

Mammoth Chunks
Photo from here.

MB at approx. 8:05:  So we have The Echo Park Time Travel Mart. That's our motto: "Whenever you are, we're already then."
[..] Mammoth Chunks. These things weigh, like, seven pounds each. Barbarian repellent. It's full of salad and potpourri — things that barbarians hate. Dead languages. (Laughter) Leeches, nature's tiny doctors. And Viking Odorant, which comes in lots of great scents: toenails, sweat and rotten vegetables, pyre ash.

Now I am just dying to go visit Time Travel Mart! Anybody here from or near California? The store seems to have become quite popular because there is now a second location listed on the website.

Hearing about the witty spinoffs from books really excites me! I love how kids can let their imaginations run wild with books and then actually see a place like Time Travel Mart bring their craziest ideas to life. After finishing off this video, go and visit the website and have a good laugh. Tell me some of your favourite products!

Dead Languages
Photo from here.

MB at approx. 10:54: There's a term called metafiction, and that's just stories about stories [..] It's when an actor will turn to the audience and say, "I am an actor, these are just rafters." And even that supposedly honest moment, I would argue, is in service of the lie [..] For me, I kind of prefer the opposite. [..] I want fiction to escape and come into the real world. I want a book to be a secret door that opens and lets the stories out into reality.

I'm getting all sorts of weird Pandora's box imagery in my head with Barnett's refuting metafiction! Sounds crazy ... but fun!

MB at approx. 10:54: And so I try to do this in my books. And here's just one example. This is the first book that I ever made. It's called "Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem."

Basically Barnett allows his book to extend to real life by letting kids write in and call their blue whales. It sort of reminds me of how we all hang on to the "reality" of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy in our childhoods.

Thank goodness for authors of children's books! I'll relish the thought that ours kids can hang on to their innocence, their sense of wonder, and jog their creative minds ... with the mighty book!

What are your takeaways from this talk?

Links:
Mac Barnett's website
Time Travel Mart
Billy Twitter and His Blue Whale Problem (affiliate link)

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

TED Talks Every Book Blogger Should Watch: Erin McKean on the Joy of Lexicography

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

You love words, right? Every bibliophile does. Erin McKean not only loves words but she compiles them. Into dictionaries. She's one of the people behind those humungous books that I remember having to "visit" in the library when online dictionaries were unheard of. We used to have "find a word in the dictionary" contests ... the faster finder was the winner!

In this talk entitled The Joy of Lexicography, Erin McKean explains how the dictionary as we know it needs to evolve to accommodate our desire for "fishing" rather than "policing."

Note: This talk is about 15 minutes. It's funny too! :)

Erin McKean at approx 0:45:And just by saying double dactyl, I've sent the geek needle all the way into the red. (Laughter) (Applause)But "lexicographical" is the same pattern as "higgledy-piggledy."

Not even a minute in and this lady has spouted out some big fun words already. Are you geeking out already?

EK at approx. 2:30: Well, first of all, I blame the Queen because it's funny. But secondly, I blame the Queen because dictionaries have really not changed. Our idea of what a dictionary is has not changed since her reign. The only thing that Queen Victoria would not be amused by in modern dictionaries is our inclusion of the F-word, which has happened in American dictionaries since 1965.

Fascinating that the dictionary hasn't changed much. (Even more fascinating that the F-word only made it in in 1965! What a state of denial the Queen must've been in!)

While I liked the idea of the dictionary as a child (because just loved books in general), I hated that I had to lug around a mini-version all the time for school because of our dictionary use contests. I was never really very good with finding the words fast enough though! Plus the fact that the mini-version never was as good as the huge one in the library ... there were just less words in it.

Even going online, it's only now that McKean points out the "unclickiness" of the online dictionary that I realize that we're probably not maximizing our technology. Of course, I prefer an online dictionary to the paper one because its so much more easier to actually find a word and even get antonyms, synonyms, and all that jazz.

EK at approx. 4:40: Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for, because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.

Ha! Told ya. Not everyone can master the flip through uber thin pages and look for a word with letters the size of an ant!

I would disagree that "serendipity is dead" if dictionaries go online because the other stuff linked within a page (which probably are mostlyads?) has a potential for serendipity. Why else is being online such a time suck?

I do have some fond memories of discovering new words just flipping through a dictionary. Or just the random find that there are actually a few real words that begin with "aa" when looking up the word "aadvark."

EK at approx. 4:47: [..] Does everyone know the ham butt problem? [..]

After seeing "ham butt problem" I know you're going to watch this entire talk. :)

I love this analogy! It really drives home the point about how society urges us to conform rather than to build our own new worlds, and it's not just limited to dictionaries!

EK at approx. 6:50: The book-shaped dictionary is not going to be the only shape dictionaries come in. And it's not going to be the prototype for the shapes dictionaries come in.

I've honestly never thought about a dictionary taking any other form. I guess I am so conditioned to what is looks like now that I can't reimagine it any other way.

EK at approx. 8:16: And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anybody who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction. It doesn't make a word any more real than any other way. If you love a word, it becomes real.

Speaking of children's books, I remember wondering about all the "nonsense" words that Dr. Seuss uses in is books. I love it! But I know that some parents aren't too keen on it (yeah, I know some party poopers, sorry if you're one of them) because they justify that this is just plain nonsense and doesn't teach what is "real." Now I appreciate even more how Dr. Seuss encourages creativity and the no bounds idea of what words can be.

I also remember when some Tagalog words made it into the English dictionary and it was a big deal. (For example boondocks is from "bundok" which of course means mountains). I know there are other languages slowly creeping into the English and think it's simply a natural extension of how globalized the world is becoming. What about a language that cuts across countries? It's probably not as far-fetched as we think it to be.

EK at approx. 9:40: Library of Congress: 17 million books, of which half are in English. If only one out of every 10 of those books had a word that's not in the dictionary in it, that would be equivalent to more than two unabridged dictionaries.

And I find an un-dictionaried word -- a word like "un-dictionaried," for example -- in almost every book I read. What about newspapers? Newspaper archive goes back to 1759, 58.1 million newspaper pages. If only one in 100 of those pages had an un-dictionaried word on it, it would be an entire other OED. That's 500,000 more words. So that's a lot. And I'm not even talking about magazines. I'm not talking about blogs -- and I find more new words on BoingBoing in a given week than I do Newsweek or Time. There's a lot going on there.

Mind blown.

Read it again. Half a million more words not in the dictionary. I probably made up a word and it was a "real" word and someone had used it before me!

Off the top of my head I can't remember an "un-dictionaried" word. I think I will keep this in the back of my mind when I'm reading now!

EK at approx. 9:40:  Because a word is like an archaeological artifact. If you don't know the provenance or the source of the artifact, it's not science, it's a pretty thing to look at. So a word without its source is like a cut flower. You know, it's pretty to look at for a while, but then it dies. It dies too fast. So, this whole time I've been saying, "The dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary." Not "a dictionary," or "dictionaries." And that's because, well, people use the dictionary to stand for the whole language.

Interesting that I use "the dictionary" too. Just brainwashed?

I found this talk quite thought-provoking and hope you did too! Did you have any takeaways?

Also, I have a few questions for you all. Feel free to express your opinions.

1. Do you speak another language and know of any words that made it into the English dictionary?
2. Have you ever come across and "un-dictionaried word? Do share!
3. What form do you envision the dictionary taking, aside it from obvious fact that it's on the internet?

Links:
Erin McKean's Blog Dictionary Evangelist
Erin McKean on Twitter
Wordnick

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

TED Talks Every Book Blogger Should Watch: Chip Kidd on why Designing books is no laughing matter

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

Despite many readers not wanting to judge a book solely by its cover, covers obviously matter. Why else would publishers pour in money to get books professionally designed?

I personally love good design in general so naturally a cleverly designed book can make me sit up and pay attention. Sometimes a great cover will make me pick up a book -- it's the first impression and whether we like it or not, first impressions matter.

Chip Kidd is a brilliant book designer and he explains why his job is a three-fold responsibility. I wish that more book cover designers would take on the same mantra. Watch, laugh (yes, this is hilarious!)... and learn!

This talk is about 19 minutes but I was laughing so much I felt like it was much shorter.

Chip Kidd at approx. 2:47: [..] "OK. Lesson one. Listen up." And he covered up the picture and he said, "You either say this," and then he covered up the word, "or you show this. But you don't do this." Because this is treating your audience like a moron. (Laughter) And they deserve better.

I have a distaste for literal covers. Like this. I know I can dig up more examples. And yes I feel it's moronic to have a literal cover. If Kidd says this is Design 101, I wonder why so many book covers are disasters? Ugh.

CK at 8:01: But if you think about it, from my head to my hands to his leg. (Laughter) That's a responsibility. And it's a responsibility that I don't take lightly. The book designer's responsibility is threefold: to the reader, to the publisher and, most of all, to the author. I want you to look at the author's book and say, "Wow! I need to read that."

Now that I think about it, the permutations from a book design have upped -- think about all the bookish and literary themed stuff out there!

As for responsibility, I always thought the reader was foremost (I'm self-centred, ok?). Kidd captures it pretty simply: it should be attractive that the reader wants to read it. Note, not pick up, but read. (Besides, who wants to read an ugly looking book? Or open up a book expecting one thing based on the cover ... and getting something totally different - happened to me many times!)

It's interesting that he points out that he feels a huge responsibility to the author. I can see where he is coming from as a designer. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that Kidd obviously reads the books he designs. Designing should be logical. If a cover doesn't embody what's in its pages, most readers will notice the disconnect.

CK at 11:05: A book cover is a distillation. It is a haiku, if you will, of the story. [...] All of these solutions derive their origins from the text of the book, but once the book designer has read the text, then he has to be an interpreter and a translator.

Here's a quick round-up of all the books Kidd mentions in his talk. I've only read Jurassic Park (who hasn't?) though I've read some of these authors' other work.

I find Kidd's explanation of how he came out with the design for these books clever, fascinating ... and an extremely varied and involved process. He has obviously read these books and then he builds the covers based on the storyline or concepts. He also waxes poetic about the tactility of design, and how people naturally will "interact" with the cover and the book itself.

Books discussed in Chip Kidd's talk: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, Naked by David Sedaris, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Buddha (1-8) by Ozamu Tezuka, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

CK at 13:22: Do you know what John Updike used to do the first thing when he would get a copy of one of his new books from Alfred A. Knopf? He'd smell it. Then he'd run his hand over the rag paper, and the pungent ink and the deckled edges of the pages. All those years, all those books, he never got tired of it. Now, I am all for the iPad, but trust me -- smelling it will get you nowhere. 

Calling all book sniffers out there, you're just like John Updike! Again, Kidd stresses that books are a multi-sensory experience and it's apparent that he is among those who will extoll the values of the physical book. A man after mine own heart!

Based on this talk I have a renewed appreciation for what goes into the iconic book cover design!

What are your thoughts about book cover design? How much do covers matter to you? 

What are some of your hated book covers because they're overly literal? Do you have some hated covers on loved books?

Sound off on this funny talk!

Links:
Chip Kidd's website
Chip Kidd on Wikipedia
Chip Kidd interviewed at Penn State (Youtube)

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

TED Talks Every Book Blogger Should Watch: Brian Dettmer's Old Books Reborn as Art

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

I am fascinated with arts and crafts .... but Brian Dettmer's "Old Books Reborn as Art" hits that out of the park! I can't express how complex, how beautiful, how appealing these old book transformations are!

Note: The Talk is 5 minutes. Please watch it!

Brian Dettmer (BD) at 1:03: I think of my work as sort of a remix, in a way, because I'm working with somebody else's material in the same way that a D.J. might be working with somebody else's music. [..]

Artists really set themselves apart by being original. I think Dettmer is extremely modest about his abilities to take an accessible raw material like old books, reimagine them, and then actually devise the means ways of shaping them into these sculptural pieces.

BD : So I think one of the reasons people are disturbed by destroying books, people don't want to rip books and nobody really wants to throw away a book, is that we think about books as living things, we think about them as a body, and they're created to relate to our body, as far as scale, but they also have the potential to continue to grow and to continue to become new things. So books really are alive.

I've often felt it sacrilege to cut up or throw away a perfectly readable book. I'm not quite sure why but it goes beyond the act merely being wasteful. My feelings are pretty deep-seated for some reason. While Dettmer offers up his explanation as books being "living things," I'm not quite happy with this explanation. I do know they are precious, and the amount of work that goes into a book - in its writing and the physical form - should be honoured and not desecrated. Dettmer certainly does a great job at honouring books.

BD at 3:56: And I think of my work as almost an archaeology. I'm excavating and I'm trying to maximize the potential and discover as much as I possibly can and exposing it within my own work. But at the same time, I'm thinking about this idea of erasure [...]

The duality of Dettmer's work is fascinating: using what's there then putting his own stamp on it. He "kills" the original book and resurrects a new form that is a hybrid of old and new. A Frankensteined book!

BD at 5:00: So I don't think that the book will ever really die. People think that now that we have digital technology, the book is going to die, and we are seeing things shifting and things evolving. I think that the book will evolve, and just like people said painting would die when photography and printmaking became everyday materials, but what it really allowed painting to do was it allowed painting to quit its day job.

I remember when e-readers first hit the market that people were predicting the demise of the printed book. I knew then, and I know now, that that will never be the case. Thank goodness for the book blogging community who I know will continue to advocate for all sorts of books, in all forms, especially the "original" book.

I look forward to seeing what the next generation will do with the print book, apart from reading it of course. I concur with Dettmer, it's exciting stuff!

Links:
Brian Dettmer's Website
Brian Dettmer's Flickr
Photo Gallery of Brian Dettmer's Work (features on TED Talks)

***

What are your takeaways? What are your thoughts about old books being used as raw material for art? 

P.S. I am going to try for this to be a twice a month feature. 

P.P.S I got a comment on the last TED Talk suggesting this feature become a meme. What do you think? Would you participate? 

If you have any suggestions of TED Talks you'd like featured, or how this can evolve into a meme, I'd love to hear from you!

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

TED Talks Every Book Blogger Should Watch: Tracy Chevalier on Finding the Story Inside the Painting

I track down TED Talks that would be of special interest to the book blogging community ... and they become a jumping board for personal musings, including yours!

I often wonder how authors come up with their stories ... you probably do too! In Tracy Chevalier's Finding the Story Inside the Painting, she refers to the inspiration behind The Girl with the Pearl Earring. It's been years since I've read it, so a reread is in order for me.

You don't have to read this specific book to understand what Chevalier is talking about. I found this talk an enlightening piece on how authors come up with their stories overall; you just never know how something, anything can inspire a story. Specifically, this is a nice little peek into Chevalier's thought processes on how a piece of art -- this particular Vermeer painting of which little is known -- triggered her curiosity, got her researching, and eventually building and writing the story.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer
(from Wikipedia)

Tracy Chevalier (TC) at 3:36: What made me stop in my tracks about her to begin with was just the gorgeous colors he uses and the light falling on her face. But I think what's kept me still coming back year after year is another thing, and that is the look on her face, the conflicted look on her face. I can't tell if she's happy or sad, and I change my mind all the time. So that keeps me coming back.


I remember seeing the cover of this book and thinking how stark the colours looked against the background. I thought it was "nice" but I don't think I would ever have gone to the lengths that Chevalier would, asking whether she is happy or sad, or anything else. To me, she is just another pretty face in a painting by someone famous. It doesn't speak to me; I appreciate it as a lovely handiwork but it "speaks" to me (which not at all) like those generic photos inside picture frames.

I don't think I have the imagination innately. But maybe I should? Chevalier's questioning has gotten me thinking about what attracts me to a piece of art. I think I respond more emotionally than mentally: if it makes me feel sad, happy, or evokes some emotion, rather than "who is she?"

TC at 4:55: [...] Well, there've been suggestions that she is his 12-year-old daughter. The daughter at the time was 12 when he painted the painting. And I thought, no, it's a very intimate look, but it's not a look a daughter gives her father. For one thing, in Dutch painting of the time, if a woman's mouth was open, it was indicating sexual availability. It would have been inappropriate for Vermeer to paint his daughter like that.

Which is why I am no art connoisseur! Who would've thought that an open mouth in a painting meant sexual availability? It's these subtle clues that set apart good books from the better ones. But you need to know about these things, or at the least have the gumption to pick up on them so you research about it; and that makes me appreciate authors even more ... they pick up on these little things and make stories that are well-informed and multi-dimensional.

Boy Building a House of Cards by Chardin
(from here)

TC at around 8:16: I was standing there going, "Look at me. Please look at me." And he didn't look at me. He was still looking at his cards, and that's one of the seductive elements of this painting is, he's so focused on what he's doing that he doesn't look at us. And that is, to me, the sign of a masterpiece, of a painting when there's a lack of resolution. He's never going to look at me.

If he did look at me, that would be the last straw :) I find it interesting that Chevalier mentions that she likes the "lack of resolution" from both the paintings she's discussed. For people with imagination, or at the least some level of curiosity, this is a license for  a free-for-all storytelling (remember Chevalier's gleeful reaction in the beginning?!). For researchers and those who like quick answers, it's more a nightmare. Which one are you - story producer or consumer?

Chevalier with the mystery painting she based short story "Rosy"
(photo from here.)

TC at 11:52 onwards: "Rosy"

Wow. All that from a painting. Who would've thought?

(If you just read this without watching the video, Chevalier tells a story based on the image above. Now go watch the video ... up to the end this time!)

***

Check out some of the links I came across looking for photos:

Boy Building a House of Cards: Genius who took his secrets to the grave

Elizabethan characters given new identities by novelists from 21st century


What are your takeaways? What things spark your desire to tell a story? Or do you prefer to read the products of those itching to tell stories?

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)

TED Talks Every Book Blogger Should Watch: On Adichie & The Danger of a Single Story

I love TED Talks. There's a lot learn in about this world and TED talks are a wonderful venue to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. I was pondering one of the talks recently and I had a bit of an aha moment. Wouldn't it be interesting to find out what other book bloggers thought about them too? This is my initial offering. Watch and ponder along with me.




In this engaging and sometimes hilarious talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares The Danger of a Single Story and her realization that stereotyping tells only a partial story of the the truth. There are many, many stories out there that are begging to be told.

My takeaways 

I have yet to read any of Adichie's books (Americanah is calling my name!) but it's wonderful to think that authors like Adichie are championing authors and readers who want diversity in their writing/reading fare.

Chimamanda Adichie (CA) at 4:50: "What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals."

I can relate to Adichie's experience. Interestingly, having migrated to Canada, I still get a lot of raised eyebrows when they hear me speaking English without an accent (The Philippine educational system is an American legacy and majority of classes are taught in English). Many people will assume that I am a refugee or come from a poverty stricken family. Or when I started job hunting, it was assumed that I aspired to join the ranks of Filipinos who are domestic helpers or are in health care (I am none of these but admire those who decide to take the route; we decided to immigrate and left  a middle-income existence back in the Philippines).

Not to be judgmental or to take away from the many whose circumstances are such, it's easier to accept and even easier to simply just perpetuate stereotypes. It's what's in media all the time. Personally, I find it takes time (and patience) to explain things to people, and even harder to challenge the stereotypes that are lodged in people's minds.

When I am reading, I find my own stereotypes constantly challenged. It can be tough sometimes, but it's definitely enlightening to see other worldviews and get a better picture of the world.

CA at 8:20: "But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense, and there were debates going on about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing. " 

That's what I have in mind when someone says "Mexico." I've been guilty too.

I think I am pretty open minded, but need to open myself even more! I'm consciously trying to get more  diversity into my own reading. I have a soft spot for immigrant stories and am reading books set in different countries or written by a person of colour.

CA at 9:30: "It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power."

It's a reality that majority of the easily available books are written in Northern America. Even the books that are out for review are mainly put out by publishing houses in the US and Canada.

I have a confession: I've read more "white" stories than Filipino stories. Growing up, I knew Doctor Seuss better than Lola Basyang. I've tried to read more Filipino-penned books but getting copies is challenging. I've had to stock up when I travel halfway across the globe for a visit.

And yet another confession: I've read more (a hell more!) book written in English than in Filipino. I find that sad.

Adichie is already challenging authors to write their stories. But unless we as readers consciously seek out a diversity of stories, we'll conveniently default to what's readily available. There are reading challenges tailored specifically to address the lack of diversity in reading. Here are some which I hope you check out:

Around the World in Books Challenge 2015
Diversiverse
Travel the World in Books Challenge


CA at 13:44: I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

The underlining is mine and I can't say yes any louder than this!

How about you: what did you like most about this talk? What are your takeaways?

(I am not affiliated in any way with TED Talks. Photo for header: unsplash, TED logo from ted.com)