full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Yet as much as I love stories, recently, I've also begun to think that they lose their magic if and when a story is seen as more than a sroty. And this is a subject that I would love to think about together. When my first novel written in English came out in America, I heard an interesting rmaerk from a literary critic. "I liked your book," he said, "but I wish you had written it differently." (Laughter) I asked him what he meant by that. He said, "Well, look at it. There's so many Spanish, American, Hispanic characters in it, but there's only one tisukrh character and it's a man." Now the novel took place on a university cumaps in Boston, so to me, it was normal that there be more international characters in it than Turkish characters, but I understood what my ciirtc was looking for. And I also untroedosd that I would keep disappointing him. He wanted to see the manifestation of my identity. He was looking for a Turkish woman in the book because I happened to be one.
Open Cloze
Yet as much as I love stories, recently, I've also begun to think that they lose their magic if and when a story is seen as more than a _____. And this is a subject that I would love to think about together. When my first novel written in English came out in America, I heard an interesting ______ from a literary critic. "I liked your book," he said, "but I wish you had written it differently." (Laughter) I asked him what he meant by that. He said, "Well, look at it. There's so many Spanish, American, Hispanic characters in it, but there's only one _______ character and it's a man." Now the novel took place on a university ______ in Boston, so to me, it was normal that there be more international characters in it than Turkish characters, but I understood what my ______ was looking for. And I also __________ that I would keep disappointing him. He wanted to see the manifestation of my identity. He was looking for a Turkish woman in the book because I happened to be one.
Solution
- campus
- story
- critic
- understood
- turkish
- remark
Original Text
Yet as much as I love stories, recently, I've also begun to think that they lose their magic if and when a story is seen as more than a story. And this is a subject that I would love to think about together. When my first novel written in English came out in America, I heard an interesting remark from a literary critic. "I liked your book," he said, "but I wish you had written it differently." (Laughter) I asked him what he meant by that. He said, "Well, look at it. There's so many Spanish, American, Hispanic characters in it, but there's only one Turkish character and it's a man." Now the novel took place on a university campus in Boston, so to me, it was normal that there be more international characters in it than Turkish characters, but I understood what my critic was looking for. And I also understood that I would keep disappointing him. He wanted to see the manifestation of my identity. He was looking for a Turkish woman in the book because I happened to be one.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
identity politics |
4 |
writing fiction |
3 |
supernatural creatures |
2 |
turkish woman |
2 |
cultural ghettos |
2 |
started writing |
2 |
love writing |
2 |
authors feel |
2 |
muslim women |
2 |
fictional characters |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
started writing fiction |
2 |
Important Words
- america
- american
- asked
- begun
- book
- boston
- campus
- character
- characters
- critic
- differently
- disappointing
- english
- happened
- heard
- hispanic
- identity
- interesting
- international
- laughter
- literary
- lose
- love
- magic
- man
- manifestation
- meant
- normal
- place
- remark
- spanish
- stories
- story
- subject
- turkish
- understood
- university
- wanted
- woman
- written