when reading a book

when i am reading a book, a fiction book, i am now more aware of the writer's style and treatment of how s/he wishes to write. i guess i got it from dr s (the sensitivity part); she's a great teacher and i love to be taught by her.

the way the writer writes is heavily influenced by his/her culture. i notice this after reading books by eastern writers (the translation): murakami and toto chan write differently from jhumpa lahiri, likewise for orhan pamuk and catherine lim. but novelists from the same culture has got similar style. the general feel is similar, but, of course, personal style differs.

then i began to wonder about western writers. they differ too! murdoch writes different from atwood and auster.

this realisation made me excited to read more books by different writers from different cultures. it's showed me how powerful natural langauge is, and how much one's mother tongue influences one's thinking and aquisition of second and subsequent language - but this is for another time.

(perhaps, it's because of this my english "sounds" clumsy and i keep bashing myself about it.)

of course they're people gifted with the ability to acquire language quickly and communicate well in the respective language "rules". meaning when they speak english, it's neutral and not accented by their mother tongue. when they write in english, it "sounds" english.

this was what i realised when reading the translation of the writer's work. the japanese essence of murakami's works is retained in the translation, and the same goes for pamuk's. so although it has been translated to english, the essence of the original language the literature was written in is kept and that is important in understanding the writer's background and subsequently the culture s/he grew up in. it tells of the bigger story and the history of the anthology. isn't that just fascinating?!