Alex Pfau Jee Leong Koh

 Alexander Pfau

    This weekend we had a very different author than in previous sessions. His work was not translated, but mad to seem like a translation, since the person he supposedly translated from was not real. An interesting premise to an interesting person, I must say. Jee Leong's talk was a speech rather than a Ted-Style talk. He regaled us with how it felt to live in NY as a gay man, and how it was almost a new birthing for him. He gave us some insight onto his life as well. For example, that writers often have to teach or do side jobs, since writing doesn't pay the bills, especially in NY city. When asked how it was to put his own image into a fictional character, he said that he often switched between it and himself in his mind, almost getting lost in the character. While I can understand how that might be a good tool for creating exciting literature, I would definitely be scared to be too deep into my own work like that.


    As for the readings for the past week, they were not my forte either. Knowing that Leong's character was falsified throughout the story kind of created a feeling of dissonance for me, since, while the character was fictional, he was portrayed as a real person. This might have been due to good writing on Leong's part, but it didn't it well with me. His haikus were on point however. As an Asian American myself, and having lived in the city all my life, I relate quite well to his poetry, and what feelings he hopes to elicit through it. I really likes the haiku where he listed all of the foods he saw in the, and he even mentioned lady fingers, one of my own favorites. 

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