The following link will lead you to an interview of Doris Lessing, in which the 2007 Nobel laureate talks about her latest book, Alfred and Emily, her childhood memory in Zimbabwe, her life after receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, and so forth. Listen to it and write down anything you feel interesting in this interview.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95223031&sc=emaf
7 comments:
After listening this interview, I could get more sense about why Doris Lessing is 2007 Nobel laureate. It surprises me that she only had education until she was 14, and then she made herself into a self-educated intellectual. It’s hard to imagine how she can write excellent novels which depict miscellaneous form in lots of phases of life, environment, society…etc. I find out that she recently commented that unhappy childhoods seem to produce fiction writers. Doris said, "Yes, I think that is true. Though it wasn't apparent to me then. Of course, I wasn't thinking in terms of being a writer then - I was just thinking about how to escape, all the time." I think that a stressed childhood made Doris has been forced into self-awareness early, so she had to learn how to watch or feel grown-ups what they really mean. As the result, she always observes everyone in her own particular way. Maybe quite right in this way, she fosters how to be piercing, creative and resolute to have an insight into surroundings.
About her latest book, Alfred and Emily, she explores the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by WWI, and imagines the happier lives her parents might have made for themselves had there were no war. I always revisit my past, but I haven’t imagined that the past can be changed. However, I believe Doris did in certain aspect . She took her solace by rewriting the past even though she abolishes herself. And she insists that it’s the ultimate book she wrote; nevertheless, it’s not the end of her life. In this final book, she tries to do something, get out from under that monstrous legacy and get free, that makes some sense of her beginning. It seems to come to perfection of her writing career because the opening just exists after the terminal, like a circle. Never ended.
Doris Lessing learned by herself after she was fourteen years old. Moreover, she used her great writing ability to write many works. She talked about her depressed childhood. She said that her parents were badly damaged by World War I. and her father had a wooden leg, and a disastrous mother. This condition look like A. S. Byatt The Thing in the Forest. Girls father dead and their mothers were depressed after the World War. She memorized her sad childhood, and learned to discover anything around the environment such as her parents the WWI. She realized what she wanted to do and want to tell readers her personal unique opinion.
Doris Lessing, who is a winner of the 2007 Nobel laureate, is amazed me that her background. As the above mentioned, she was educated until 14 years old. Her parents both are traumatized by the World War I. Her father has a wooden leg and had, what was then called shell shock, but is now called post- traumatic disorder or something. Her mother is harmed invisibly; that is, her mother’s trauma lies inside her mind. I think it is the deeply trauma in this world. Doris Lessing livs in this family and becomes the good writer; therefore, she also writes a book as the biography for her parents. I think she exactly is a perfect writer after I study her story-Out Friend, Judith and her background. It is amazing for her to write marvelous novels when her educated degree stops by 14. I do really appreciate her.
The thought of imagining the world without something is very interesting. Someone had asked me if I didn’t exist in the world what would be changed. It’s a hard question, and it makes me want to read Doris Lessing’s book. I think if I never exist there would be not a big change. I am not an effective person, and I haven’t done anything memorable event. I’m curious what she has written in this book. Doris Lessing is a famous writer and has won a lot of prizes, so if she were not existed, many fantastic novels would disappear and I don’t need to write this comment now. It will be so different. A book has mentioned “a person’s life is connected with others,” so I hope I can change something in positive aspect. When I grow old, I hope I can tell what I have done to the world even just a little bit.
I am pretty impressed by Doris Lessing for rewriting the past in her latest book: Alfred and Emily, which won her a Nobel laureate in 2007. She imagined a past without World War II, and both of her parents married a different spouse. "So what?" Lessing says. "I mean, the world can live without me." This sentence strikes me: What would the world be if I never existed? I have never thought of this question before. I think Lessing is longing for a happy childhood and the love of her parents, so she reflects her inner thoughts on her novel in a way to recover her trauma.
It is surprising that Doris Lessing started to learn when she was 14 years old, and she learned by herself and has brought us many good story with her great writing ability. She had a melancholy childhood, as she said, her parents were badly damaged by World War I. Her father had a wooden leg and shell shock, and her mom is talented but disastrous. In spite of an unhappy childhood, she still become a successful writer as we see now. And I think the Nobel prize is an approval of her works.
It’s interesting that Doris Lessing said that winning Nobel Prize was a disaster for her writing. She said she did not do anything but talk. I had read a short story “room 19”
she wrote, she didn’t make the plots complex. But after reading that, I couldn’t help but wonder if I walk into the marriage in the future, what would it be? It really inspire people a lot, but the story is really simple.
When the reporter asked Lessing if she will write another book. She said no immediately. It’s impressive that she said she write because she has to. Writing is destined to be her job.
Post a Comment