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There were so many parts to this conversation that I want to touch on, but I want to start with the beginning of their conversation about Adichie’s writing style.  Here are some of the lines that stuck out to me when I was transcribing:

ZS: The psychological acuity.  I think everybody reads you, is amazed by how real these people seem.  I don’t know how you feel about this?  But it goes quite beyond the typical fiction these days where... I genuienely feel that these people are real.  (13:01-13:15)

ZS: The clear… the clarity of the prose.  It feels like there’s nothing in between the reader and these people.  And anybody who has ever written knows how unbelievably difficult that is to achieve.  And I was wondering how you came about to that style? Was it natural to you? Or even know what I mean by that? Lots of laughs J (13:20-13:50)

CNA: When I’m sitting there writing I’m not thinking about style. (14:06-14:10) 

CNA: There’s that moment when something magic happens.  Do you know, when you... So you have moments when nothing is happening—it’s not going well—and then there’s this moment when you become transported and you really forget how much time has passed.  I don’t know if you know, but I do. (14:20-14:37)

CNA:  I enjoy reading fiction that is clear.  Yeah I mean it is easy to confuse, something that is badly written as some how “deep”? (15:00-15:20)

I found this conversation interesting for many reasons.  Although I have not read Adichie, I am curious to know if her writing is clear to the majority of her audience.  What is the difference between Adichie’s and Smith’s clarity?  I guess I am very fascinated by this because Adichie is a Nigerian woman, and I know that historically many women of color have been chastised on not making their writing clear for white folks.  It seems that the act of not providing clarity is a form of rebellion/revolution, the choice to write for Black women and not for a greater audience is in my opinion active resistance.

Anne, I honestly am not sure how to answer the questions you posed regarding Bryn Mawr students, and their unwillingness to speak.  As you know I struggled with this A LOT last semester, however I believe that it would be too simplistic to say “women @ BMC don’t speak their mind because of privilege”—even though I do think that is a very VALID explanation.  I literally ask myself this question all the time, but I do think that many people here do not speak their mind because of fear and/or a lack of clarity with themselves.  I say this because I am always dumbfounded when I am in class and people are so unaware about macro-level institutional disparities that directly impact them.  Of course this can be due to ignorance, lived experience or exposure, but in order to be honest and have clarity with others—it seems that one would have to do that with their self, first. 

How do we get people to own their experience?  I think the first step is talking about these experiences, both minor and major, in order to begin a dialogue embedded in honesty and realness—which I believe equates to clarity.