I know, again with the TED talks. But, they’re so good, I can’t help it. I watched a dozen or so on the plane back from Portland and had a great time sharpening my brain teeth on subjects I know very little or nothing about, like string theory, mushrooms that could save the world, the Hadron Super Collider, etc. But, this one from Amy Tan, called Where does creativity hide? exposes her creative process so completely, and in such a compelling way, that I had to share. It’s a great contemplation of creativity, its sources and how we can cultivate our own.
I love Amy Tan’s writing. I haven’t read everything she’s written, but her early novels do an amazing job of exposing the cultural gap between immigrants’ children and their parents’ home countries and their cultural identities, ones molded through stories, lives lived in one country, while their parents try to tie them to their home country. It’s a terrific balancing act, the effects of which show up in interesting ways. I’m doing a horrible job of explaining it, but read The Joy Luck Club or The Kitchen God’s Wife and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about.
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