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Words of wisdom from the author Wayson Choy

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Oct. 5th, 2004 | 01:38 pm

I tell my students," says Choy, reverting to teacher mode, "don't write what you know, but write about what resides in you. And you won't know that until you become introspective." Many people want to avoid introspection, he says, because it means confronting demons and pain as well as the chain of joys and good cheer that we bring up from that "bottom drawer" when we reminisce about the past. "A writer can't just deal with the positive because life is lived totally and so the writers I trust most are those who say here is everything, let me retell what I have discovered resides there."

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Comments {8}

absentminded and opinionated

(no subject)

from: [info]pescana
date: Oct. 5th, 2004 02:12 pm (UTC)
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Ooh, nice. I am excessively introspective at times, which is maybe just as bad as not introspective enough except that I know myself better.

Thank you!

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lex

(no subject)

from: [info]blue_lotus
date: Oct. 5th, 2004 02:16 pm (UTC)
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Yes, me too.

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INTJ to ENTJ

from: anonymous
date: Oct. 5th, 2004 04:07 pm (UTC)
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I used to be introspective and introverted but, sometime during university, I became extraverted. (It's been scientifically proven!) I think I was deliberately trying to be more sociable and less, well, of a nerd.

b*

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psychicle

Re: INTJ to ENTJ

from: [info]psychicle
date: Oct. 5th, 2004 04:33 pm (UTC)
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Hmm, that's funny. I went the other way: ENTP to INTP/J. The E/I scale has supposedly been discredited, however, so says one of my psych major friends, which might account for the flip flopping.

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(no subject)

from: [info]twotwentyseven
date: Oct. 5th, 2004 10:31 pm (UTC)
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My Architecture Prof said the same thing yestarday. If you draw/write/build what you know, it looks like somebody else, because it is a very literal reflection of influence. Where as if you draw from who you are, it resembles a more cultivated understanding.

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oyvavoy

(no subject)

from: [info]oyvavoy
date: Oct. 8th, 2004 03:43 pm (UTC)
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Wayson Choy is my idol, I love him. Thanks for posting this!

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(no subject)

from: anonymous
date: Oct. 9th, 2004 11:41 am (UTC)
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that is an absolutely fantastic quote and I am stealing it for my own blog!

-col

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I couldn't disagree with Mr. Choy more...

from: anonymous
date: Oct. 11th, 2004 04:43 pm (UTC)
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And, as it turns out, had a fair amount to say on the subject...

http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/001220.html

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