Elif Shafak 1: The politics of fiction

TED 2010

Elif Shafak 1: The politics of fiction (transcript)

Summary

We must enjoy fiction stories more without thinking identities of not only writers but also you and politics.

Fiction stories have a lot of magic to connect all humanity and help our imaginations.

We don’t find identities of writers in fiction stories but we feel the connection of the characters in them beyond each identity.

In the TED talk, the speaker is a Turkish writer. She just wanted to love and celebrate fiction she wrote for what it is, however, she was prosecuted because of her fiction stories. It could be admitted for fiction stories to be entitled to political opinions though we ruin them.

We will produce stereotypes ourselves. We tend to form clusters based on similarity and we create walls. Surrounding something with thick walls is drying up inside. Something is an acne, a blemish or even the human soul.

Due to the place we are in is the small circle, if we keep staying there, our imagination shrinks, hearts dwindle, and humanness might wither.

Something that is strange and elusive is important for us.

Writers can write fiction more freely and we can feel them more widely.

Words in this itory

entitled /  qualify, give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something.

dwindle /dwin・dle/dwíndl/ diminish, decrease, reduce, lessen, shrink

humanness /  manhood, humanity

wither / dry up, wilt, droop, go limp, fade

demolish /  knock down, pull down, tear down, bring down, destroy

dismantle /  take apart, pull apart, pull to pieces