The TED talks episode that inspired me to
continue my writing career and read stories from other cultures is “The Dangerof a Single Story” by Chinmamanda Ngozi Adichie.
In her TED talks, she is an African author that
is very intelligent and in love with literature. She expresses how much she
loves books and stories, but also tells the danger of a single story and how it
affects everyone.
The phrase “Single Story” refers too a general
story of a person, group of people, or even a culture, and that story giving
the reader a single view on that them. This is something that can destroy any
group or culture based on the message of the story.
How it works is, if a story portrays a group of people
as mean from town A, and other towns from near by heard the story about this
one mean group from town A. Since there isn’t any other story about that town
A, other towns then label town A as a mean place.
The truth might have been, the whole story of
town A being mean could have simply been the opinion of one person who
misunderstood what was being projected to them. In result, that person
generating a negative response about town A. Leading other to think town A is
filled with mean people.
Giving the other towns a negative and one-sided
view, which isn’t fare.
This happens all over the world, and Chimamanda
explains that we need to stop this and create multiple stories to help us see
different sides of the same coin.
The way this helped me was, when I was in the
navy I wanted to write as I did when I was younger, but I heard you write what
you know. I felt doomed because I thought I was only able to write about my
life, which I thought was boring.
After listening to this Ted talks I started
reading stories from other nations and periods, and I was inspired to write
again. Even better, I made the choice to make this my career and I have no
regrets about it at all.
