Perils of being a Writer - “Black-eyed women”
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s mother tells him, “In our homeland, there was a reporter who said the government tortured the people in prison. So the government does to him exactly what he said it did to others. They send him away and no one ever sees him again. That is what happens to writers who put their names on things.” Writers risk being victimized and oppressed by the government when they author subjects which disapprove or undermine the government. According to Nguyen’s mother, writing contentious subjects is perilous; hence, it is imperative to hide one’s name to moderate chances of being pursued by the government. Ghost writing can be useful in diminishing the disclosure of a writer’s identity.
Ghosts and Stories - “Black-eyed women”
Nguyen concludes, “More often, though, I go hunting for the ghosts, something I can do without ever leaving home. As they haunt our country, so do we haunt theirs. They are pallid creatures, more frightened of us than we are of them. That is why we see these shades rarely, and why we must seek them out. The talismans on my desk, a tattered pair of shorts and ragged T-shirt, clean and dry, neatly pressed, remind me that my mother was right. Stories are just things we fabricate, nothing more. We search for them in a world besides our own. Then leave them here to be found, garments shed by ghosts.” Nguyen’s conclusion appeals to Metafiction for it depicts the parallels between imaginary narratives and ghosts. Writers exploit ghosts in their writing to charm readers, yet the ghosts are not factual. Imaginations are the basis of narratives; readers should discriminate the discrepancy between realism and fiction in plots.
Communism and War - “War Years”
Nguyen recalls, “A guerrilla army of former South Vietnamese soldiers was training in the jingles of Thailand, preparing to launch a counterattack in unified Vietnam. The plan was to stir the unhappy people against their Communist rulers, incite a revolution, and resurrect the Republic of the South.” Guerrillas are representative of the aggrieved citizens and entities who are not impressed with the merger. Endeavors to provoke a rebellion are aimed at scuttling a sense of unification.
