Saturday, March 15, 2008

Quote

This was in today's Writer's Almanac. It's a quote from Nigerian novelist Ben Okri: "Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer.... The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens' characters are Nigerians. ...Literature may come from a specific place but it always lives in its own unique kingdom."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's loaded.

Maybe if certain world leaders got together in a book discussion group, they'd communicate better than by using the specialized language of political negotiation.

The question is, what book should they be assigned... :-)

Ruth said...

Wow, great question. A possible starting point?

Anonymous said...

Sounds good to me! Oh to be a fly on the wall at such a reading group...