Robert Urbanek
Platinum Member
Author Yiyun Li recounted how, at age 18, she wrote propaganda during her stint in the Chinese army. It was either that or clean toilets or the pigsty. “It was not difficult to write propaganda as long as you knew the key words and how to weave them together.”
After coming to America, she thought “It’s a good thing I don’t have to write propaganda anymore.” But a couple of years ago, she was driving children in a car when one asked a girl why she didn’t enter the school’s poetry contest. The girl said, “Have you seen the winners lately? You really have to have the key words in your poetry to win those awards.” She gave a few key words. One was “injustice,” one was “police brutality.” She said, “You really have to have those words.” And then she asked, “I wonder why we cannot write about flowers anymore?”
— from remarks at a writers’ conference at the UN, as reported in the August 2022 issue of Harper’s Magazine
After coming to America, she thought “It’s a good thing I don’t have to write propaganda anymore.” But a couple of years ago, she was driving children in a car when one asked a girl why she didn’t enter the school’s poetry contest. The girl said, “Have you seen the winners lately? You really have to have the key words in your poetry to win those awards.” She gave a few key words. One was “injustice,” one was “police brutality.” She said, “You really have to have those words.” And then she asked, “I wonder why we cannot write about flowers anymore?”
— from remarks at a writers’ conference at the UN, as reported in the August 2022 issue of Harper’s Magazine
