“I read foreign novels because they’re better,” was a remark I began to expect (surprisingly, a senior member of the Dutch Fund for Literature also said this to me). I asked readers if that could really be the case; why would foreign books be “better” across the board, in what way? As the responses mounted up, a pattern emerged: these people had learned excellent English and with it an interest in Anglo-Saxon culture in their school years. They had come to use their novel-reading (but not other kinds of reading) to reinforce this alternative identity, a sort of parallel or second life that complemented the Dutch reality they lived in and afforded them a certain self esteem as initiates in a wider world.
Tim Parks at the NYRB
2 comments:
I completely disagree. We should support our own authors and novels. By grabbing a copy and reading their works you'll know that you can easily relate and understand their works. It's way better than the foreign ones.
Foreign novels are better as they say because they can express and picture out the scenes vividly by using the appropriate words and sentences. Especially in the English language you would really feel when reading that your there in the scene.
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