full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Books have saved the introverted, timid child that I was — that I once was. But I'm also aware of the danger of fetishizing them. When the poet and mystic, Rumi, met his spiritual companion, Shams of Tabriz, one of the first things the latter did was to toss Rumi's books into water and wacth the letters dissolve. The Sufis say, "Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." The problem with today's cultural ghettos is not lack of knowledge — we know a lot about each other, or so we think — but kowlgnede that tekas us not beyond ourselves: it makes us eitlist, distant and disconnected. There's a metaphor which I love: living like a drawing compass. As you know, one leg of the compass is static, rooted in a plcae. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a wide circle, ctlnsnaoty moving. Like that, my fiction as well. One part of it is rooted in Istanbul, with srnotg Turkish roots, but the other part travels the world, connecting to different ceuulrts. In that sense, I like to think of my fciiton as both local and universal, both from here and everywhere.

Open Cloze

Books have saved the introverted, timid child that I was — that I once was. But I'm also aware of the danger of fetishizing them. When the poet and mystic, Rumi, met his spiritual companion, Shams of Tabriz, one of the first things the latter did was to toss Rumi's books into water and _____ the letters dissolve. The Sufis say, "Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." The problem with today's cultural ghettos is not lack of knowledge — we know a lot about each other, or so we think — but _________ that _____ us not beyond ourselves: it makes us _______, distant and disconnected. There's a metaphor which I love: living like a drawing compass. As you know, one leg of the compass is static, rooted in a _____. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a wide circle, __________ moving. Like that, my fiction as well. One part of it is rooted in Istanbul, with ______ Turkish roots, but the other part travels the world, connecting to different ________. In that sense, I like to think of my _______ as both local and universal, both from here and everywhere.

Solution

  1. knowledge
  2. strong
  3. fiction
  4. takes
  5. elitist
  6. constantly
  7. watch
  8. cultures
  9. place

Original Text

Books have saved the introverted, timid child that I was — that I once was. But I'm also aware of the danger of fetishizing them. When the poet and mystic, Rumi, met his spiritual companion, Shams of Tabriz, one of the first things the latter did was to toss Rumi's books into water and watch the letters dissolve. The Sufis say, "Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." The problem with today's cultural ghettos is not lack of knowledge — we know a lot about each other, or so we think — but knowledge that takes us not beyond ourselves: it makes us elitist, distant and disconnected. There's a metaphor which I love: living like a drawing compass. As you know, one leg of the compass is static, rooted in a place. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a wide circle, constantly moving. Like that, my fiction as well. One part of it is rooted in Istanbul, with strong Turkish roots, but the other part travels the world, connecting to different cultures. In that sense, I like to think of my fiction as both local and universal, both from here and everywhere.

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. aware
  2. books
  3. child
  4. circle
  5. companion
  6. compass
  7. connecting
  8. constantly
  9. cultural
  10. cultures
  11. danger
  12. disconnected
  13. dissolve
  14. distant
  15. drawing
  16. draws
  17. elitist
  18. fetishizing
  19. fiction
  20. ghettos
  21. ignorance
  22. introverted
  23. istanbul
  24. knowledge
  25. lack
  26. leg
  27. letters
  28. living
  29. local
  30. lot
  31. met
  32. metaphor
  33. moving
  34. mystic
  35. part
  36. place
  37. poet
  38. problem
  39. rooted
  40. roots
  41. rumi
  42. saved
  43. sense
  44. shams
  45. spiritual
  46. static
  47. strong
  48. sufis
  49. tabriz
  50. takes
  51. timid
  52. toss
  53. travels
  54. turkish
  55. universal
  56. watch
  57. water
  58. wide
  59. world
  60. worse