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1Episode Summary
In T.S. Eliot’s essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent," He argues that new art is deeply connected to the literary tradition before it, creating a dialogue between past and present. Writers must engage with this history, not to imitate but to reinterpret it, creating something new while honoring the past.
For contemporary writers, Eliot’s ideas remain relevant. In a globalized world, writers often draw from multiple traditions—Chinese, Western, or global—to reflect a hybridized reality. Writers, especially young writers of our generation are often confronted with the question of authenticity. How do we write? In relation to ourselves and others? Eliot’s "impersonality" also resonates, encouraging writers to move beyond identity politics or personal narratives to explore broader human experiences, particularly for those who grapple with writing in more than one language, while struggling with bilingual writing, we often look away from the power of ambiguity. Writing and the ambiguity within it, channeling us to a hidden realm where wisdom is no cruelty, serenity is the synonym of benevolence.
In this episode, we will be having a long awaited conversation with our friends: multidisciplinary artist Sharon Zhang, literary critic Hengzhi Yang, and poet Cecilia Hua as young immigrants in today’s America to talk about what it means to be a writer, our future as writers, what writing has done for us and what can we do in return for writing.
You can find them on Instagram:
Sharon Xinran Zhang: @hardboiled.chicago
Hengzhi Yang: @househousemagazine
Cecilia Ling Hua: @poetry_cecilia
Everything we mentioned in this episode:
Right to Opacity - Édouard Glissant
The Task of the Translator - Walter Benjamin
Tradition and Individual Talent - T.S. Elliot
How to be Alone - Jonathan Franzen
Disability Theory - Tobin Siebers
The Book of Solitude - Paul Auster
Background Music: Simulation Swarm - Big Thief
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内容简介
在T.S. 艾略特的《传统与个人天赋》一文中，他论述了新艺术与前人文学传统的深刻联系，创造了一种过去与现在之间的对话。作家必须与这段历史对话，不是为了模仿，而是为了重新诠释，从而创造出新的东西，同时尊重过去。
对于当代作家来说，艾略特的观点依然具有现实意义。在全球化的今天，作家们常常从多种传统中汲取灵感——无论是中国的、是西方的，还是全球性的——以反映一种混合的现实。尤其是我们这一代年轻作家，常常面临着关于真实性的问题。我们该如何写作？我们与自己和他人之间的关系如何书写？艾略特的“无个人化”观念也依然具有共鸣，鼓励作家超越身份政治或个人叙事，探索更广泛的人类经验。特别是对于那些在双语写作中挣扎的作家而言，我们常常忽视了模糊性的力量。写作与其中的模糊性引导我们进入一个隐秘的领域，在那里，智慧不等于残酷，宁静是仁爱的同义词。
在这一集节目中，我们将与我们的朋友们进行一场期待已久的对话：青年跨学科艺术家Sharon Zhang、青年文学批评Hengzhi Yang，以及青年诗人Cecilia Hua。作为身处当代美国的年轻移民，我们将一起讨论作为作家的意义、我们的未来、写作对我们的影响以及我们能为写作做些什么。
你可以在Instagram上找到他们：Sharon Zhang：@hardboiled.chicagoHengzhi Yang：@househousemagazineCecilia Hua：@poetry_cecilia
本集提到的作品：
《晦涩的权利》——爱德华·格里桑《译者的任务》——瓦尔特·本雅明《传统与个人天赋》——T.S. 艾略特《如何独处》——乔纳森·弗兰岑《残疾理论》——托宾·西伯斯《孤独之书》——保罗·奥斯特
背景音乐：Simulation Swarm——Big Thief
