Thread by @bottomshelfbks

Still trying to process everything from Ocean Vuong’s brilliant talk that capped off a soul-stirring #AALitFest. ❤️

“Thank you, not for making my dream come true, but for giving me a reality I did not know I could dream.”

“I wanted the book to stand in the bones of Asian philosophy as a way to deconstruct American violence.”

“Buddhism teaches that every object is inexhaustible, that the longer I look at something, the deeper I see it, the more dimensions are revealed.”

“Being raised by two Vietnamese refugee women taught me how to look.”

“Love is about accepting other’s truth—as a way to get home.”

“I wanted to write a book without plot because that construction is rich with violence and conquest. “Plot” is the protagonist in Western Literature.”

“Plot is the true master. Bodies are fed into the wood chipper of plot.”

“War and Literature are dominated by men, who see and measure success by destruction.

But if you are a woman of color or queer you know you don’t have to orchestrate conflict to create drama.”

“It’s the privilege of Western Literature to declare that there’s no story unless we creat a destructive path. So I turned to Eastern thinking.”

“When you surrender plot, you gain people. People simply moving through various rooms... and isn’t that what life is?”

“Literary tastemaking is always done in consideration of the white critic. The task is to look back at the literary canon and see where there are tools that are still of use.”

“In literary circles, metaphor became passé and declared defunct. But metaphor can be a lifeline. Particularly for people of color, it can be how we talk and innovate around trauma.”

“I don’t see my career as a writer as a fixed thing. Writing two books is a phenomenal thing and there’s no reason another should come. I hope it does, but if not, that’s okay.”

“When you have control of language, when you feel it in your mouth, you can build and dream a future that you want.”

And in a touching final moment, Ocean brought his mother onto the stage for a standing ovation, after thanking her (and her generation) for “spending day in and out with their heads down so we are able to hold our heads up.” ❤️