I Do Not Know Lan Samantha Chang but I Like What Ada Zhang Says About Her

Rumpus Net published The Radical Vision of Lan Samantha Chang by Ada Zhang, an interview. I did not know what to expect, only that I was curious about this "radical vision" and I was willing to trust to serendipity. For better or for worse, I have wandered into places and books and people from which I have learned much. The plowed field has its lessons, so do the untidy fringes.

Reading the interview, I found much to interest me in Ms. Chang's writing, but what I want to share is this:

What I do know, since she has become an important person in my life, is that every part of Chang, no matter the relation—writer, teacher, director, mother, friend, partner, mentor—arises from her inner self: her style, her personal mode of knowing, her character. In her worldview, a person from any background should get to pursue art without suffering unbearably. And everyone should be encouraged to speak to that self below and hear it speaking back.

I write now because people once thought I could. Not so much the editors I submit my pieces to, but I persist because now I am trying to live up to expectations rather than live them down. I spent too much time doing that. I see now that my reasons for giving up when younger was that I thought I lacked the background to live up to my examples. I may not still fail to hit the mark, but the old mark was the wrong one. It was not writing like William Faulkner, it was to write the best I could as myself. It was not in aping the stories of others, it was in telling about my world. What Ms. Zhang says ion the above-paragraph, I hope you think about and take to heart.

sch 12/25