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

  1. campus
  2. story
  3. critic
  4. understood
  5. turkish
  6. 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

  1. america
  2. american
  3. asked
  4. begun
  5. book
  6. boston
  7. campus
  8. character
  9. characters
  10. critic
  11. differently
  12. disappointing
  13. english
  14. happened
  15. heard
  16. hispanic
  17. identity
  18. interesting
  19. international
  20. laughter
  21. literary
  22. lose
  23. love
  24. magic
  25. man
  26. manifestation
  27. meant
  28. normal
  29. place
  30. remark
  31. spanish
  32. stories
  33. story
  34. subject
  35. turkish
  36. understood
  37. university
  38. wanted
  39. woman
  40. written