It took me an incredibly long time to read Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say That We Have Nothing, but that’s not a reflection of quality. It’s an intense kind of book, dealing with an extended family of musicians during the Cultural Revolution in China, and the fall-out on their children’s lives afterwards. I frequently hit the end of a chapter and took a short break, coming back after a bit of a breather.
It’s intense and complex and beautiful and heartfelt, and if you’re any kind of creative artist who occasionally looks towards politics and wonders how bad things can get, it’s going to be an intense read.
But it should–really, really should–be read.
Back in 1916, a Russian named Victor Shklovsky wrote an essay about the nature of art. In it, he argued that our perception has a tendency to become automated, and the role of art is to disrupt that automation and force us to look at things anew:
“After we see an object several times, we begin to recognize it. The object is in front of it and we know about it, but we do not see it – hence we cannot say anything significant about it. Art removes objects from the automatism of perception…”
Art of as Technique, Victor Shklovsky,
It’s as good a guideline for recognising great art as I’ve ever seen, and the sheer amount of disruption that Thein achieves over the course of her novel is impressive. It ranges from small, graceful moments when she charts the differences between Cultures, like this:
Then ranges all the way up to narrative sequences that forced me to re-examine my relationship with art and practice and it’s importance, and what might happen if the ability to produce it went away.
DO NOT SAY THAT WE HAVE NOTHING, Madeleine Thien: Amazon (AUS | UK | USA) | KOBO
