"(Q: What's missing in contemporary writers?) A: They're disconnected. The sense of not being a part of anything. The anomie. It's the great malaise of the twentieth century. The autonomous, lonely little character-what Harold Brodkey wrote about. But language is so connected to other times and people. Words are so alive with other connections. It's almost as if some of the postmodern fiction, some of the experimental fiction, is trying to start a fire by dumping ice water on the wood. Something's a bit off because the medium, language, is connected historically. And yet the feeling of that poor individual, that disconnection. The only time you are connected is when you're writing and using language. (Q: So for you that connection is crucial-the connection with the external world and the connection with the whole history.) A: Absolutely. Otherwise you fall into this abyss where everything that's Other is completely irrelevant. It's almost a kind of death."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Novelists from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesPoets from the United StatesPeople from Albuquerque
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leslie_Marmon_Silko
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Leslie Marmon Silko
94 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Leslie Marmon Silko →
Related Quotes
"I am never far away from oral narrative, storytelling and narration, and the use of narrative to order experience. Th…"
"(How do you feel about the Bicentennial-do you have feelings about it?) LMS: Oh, I do, definitely, I have all kinds o…"
"the ease I have in writing?...It must come from being immersed in a community where every interaction reinforces a na…"
"all young writers should understand that even those things that we throw in the trash can are necessary to get us to …"
"The most radical kinds of politics are not in harangues given at stupid rallies. I mean the most earth-shaking kinds …"
"The attitude of the white shaman is that he knows more about Indians than the Indians know. (1976)"
"(Q: Why do you stay in Arizona?) A: Turn tail and run and go to some little Shangri-la? Ha! I am a part of this. You …"
"I was really fortunate because I was surrounded by generations of women. I never thought that women weren't as strong…"
"(Q: When you saw that it was going to be an almanac, what difference did that make?) A: Then I started to think about…"
"Certainly for me the most effective political statement I could make is in my art work. I believe in subversion rathe…"