Read: “ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder (2017) “You don’t have to read a lot of poetry to immediately be able to step into this world.” “The poems interconnect to tell the story of a village where everyone mysteriously goes deaf in an act of defiance, but it’s also about the small moments of joy and beauty and love that sustain us through the darkest times,” she explained. Ng poured through poetry volumes while writing “Our Missing Hearts,” and Kaminsky’s volume particularly moved her. Read: “ Deaf Republic” by Ilya Kaminsky (2019) “ Our Missing Hearts ” is available now through Penguin Press. Here, Ng shares some of the creative works that have influenced or share themes in common with “Our Missing Hearts.” ![]() I do think it’s heroic, without exaggeration, that libraries are there to serve the public.” “We’re giving them very few resources, and we’re asking them to do something incredibly important. “(The library is) the opposite of authoritarianism - it’s the opposite of the government trying to control the story,” she said. To Ng, the public library has always been a “radical” institution, which gives free access to information and is vital to the health of a country. In the United States, banned and challenged books are nothing new, but since Ng finished “Our Missing Hearts,” libraries have become a battleground in a heightened culture war - where various tactics are put to use to censor books on the topics of race, gender and sexuality, and where extremist groups have disrupted LGBTQ-friendly events. Print books have become rare objects only handled by librarians, and the internet is highly controlled, reflecting a future that countries with expansive censorship laws could face. “(It’s) something that kind of stops you in your tracks and makes you pay attention just for a second, in a way that you might not have before.”Īs Bird comes of age, access to information is scant. To build a framework for the dystopian tale, Ng said she drew inspiration from a number of contemporary and historical events, including today’s volatile political climate, Japanese American internment during World War II and the United States’ long history of separating children of color from their families as a result of slavery or, more recently, border policies.īut art has the power to “catch people by surprise,” she said, citing the attention that “Fearless Girl” sculpture drew in New York City, or the ephemeral, pop-up performance art of the “Trump Statue Initiative” in 2020. He begins a dangerous search to find her, without having a full understanding of why she disappeared or how imperiled he is merely by being her son - and by being biracial. “Our Missing Hearts” is Ng’s first book since the Hulu-adapted, explosive suburban drama “Little Fires Everywhere.” It takes place after an economic crisis - for which China becomes the scapegoat - upends life in the United States, allowing authoritarianism to fully take root and flourish.Īt the center of the story is 12-year-old Noah Gardner, also known as “Bird,” a Chinese American boy whose mother goes into hiding after one of her poems becomes a symbol of resistance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |