What can you learn about writing about culture from these pages?
Just by reading the first 50 pages of Behind the Beautiful Forevers I've been able to pick up on things that I've never realized were in this type of culture. The main theme of the first 50 pages was Asha's ability to make herself a higher power in the slums. She had multiple links to people of higher power, who told her what to do, and to fix problems when they needed to be fixed. One of her many "jobs" as the slum leader was to help out her neighbors in their time of need. She was so intoxicated with power that she was able to turn down an old friend who needed her help was just absolutely astonishing. She told Mr. Kamble to pray instead of physically helping him out in some way, in some sense I felt that Asha acted like a priest, telling the poor to pray to God for help and guidance instead of doing the work herself. She even stated that the little you give them now, the more they will give you later.
What can you learn about writing in a more general sense from Katherine Boo's writing?
I've learned that it doesn't take much for you to make your writing into a story, I mean Katherine did interviews of everyone she talked too and made them into a full out story that doesn't seem like interviews. She definitely reassured me that no matter where or what your material comes from, you can make a story out of anything. Sure there are parts that take me by surprise which causes me to reread the passage but Katherine's writing in general makes sense it's not multiple interviews squashed into bounded pages, its actually encounters of people she met and formed a beautiful story around them.
No comments:
Post a Comment