For the love of books
An exophonic writer is someone who writes in a language other than the first language they learned. Though you might be familiar with many of these writers, you might be surprised to learn some of them did not originaly speak the language you’d assume. Feature Image Via The New Yorker
Whether it’s J. K. Rowling becoming Robert Galbraith or Martyn Waites becoming Tania Carver, writers commonly change things up if they’re putting out a crime story. Something about the arsenic, chalk outlines, and cigar smoke requires a brusque, stern-sounding name. Often the first and last name has an actual definition that has something to do with inflicting pain or suffering. Tania Carver, for example—are you trying to get carved? I don’t think so. So take a stab at becoming the next bestselling crime novelist, and start the good old-fashioned way: By coming up with a pen name. We’re here to help! …
It can’t be denied: Snape did a good thing. He protected Harry against Voldemort’s onslaught just because he loved Harry’s mom, who didn’t even love him back. He did a good thing and Harry Potter fans all around the world worship him for it. I’m not going to say he was problematic because of his feelings for Lily—even though seventeen years is a long time to grieve over a one-sided love—but let it not be forgotten how absolutely vicious he was. Also, he did in his youth legitimately admire and join the Death Eaters. Only just before Lily’s murder did …
It’s strange to think of a world that speaks just one language. Considering how language colors our worldview, a monolingual world would be relatively colorless. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and today there are over 7,000 languages being spoken. In keeping with the saying, this makes our world pretty spicy. The issue is some languages are spoken by billions of people, and some are spoken by just a few. Some living languages are spoken by just one person, sadly. The good news is there are people out there trying to protect endangered languages, such as …
Though you may read anywhere between one and 200 books this year, only a few will really stay with you. Very rarely do you read a book that shifts the bedrock of your mind. We start building our outlook on life when we’re very young. It’s not easy for new ideas to come along and be retrofitted into our worldview. It’s sort of like pulling the bottom brick from Jenga. You just don’t mess with it. But, sometimes, you do come across words on a page that change you. When you look at the paper, you’re one person. When …
