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
- knowledge
- strong
- fiction
- takes
- elitist
- constantly
- watch
- cultures
- 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
- aware
- books
- child
- circle
- companion
- compass
- connecting
- constantly
- cultural
- cultures
- danger
- disconnected
- dissolve
- distant
- drawing
- draws
- elitist
- fetishizing
- fiction
- ghettos
- ignorance
- introverted
- istanbul
- knowledge
- lack
- leg
- letters
- living
- local
- lot
- met
- metaphor
- moving
- mystic
- part
- place
- poet
- problem
- rooted
- roots
- rumi
- saved
- sense
- shams
- spiritual
- static
- strong
- sufis
- tabriz
- takes
- timid
- toss
- travels
- turkish
- universal
- watch
- water
- wide
- world
- worse