Ocean Vuong: "The Emperor Of Gladness" | Oprah's Book Club
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Who is Ocean Vuong and what are his accomplishments?
I want to talk to you about being this accomplished author with so many awards, hard to mention them all. At just 36, you have a wild list of accomplishments. New York Times bestselling author. A professor of modern poetry at NYU, a multiple award-winning poet, essayist, novelist, screenwriter. You also won a MacArthur Genius Grant. And English isn't even your first language. Where does this come from, this wellspring of creativity?
I have to say I was raised by women who were illiterate. And I think about this often. Where does it come from? I think even though they were illiterate, they were the first poets because they saw that when they came to this country with nothing, they realized that with language, they can make anything happen.
How did Ocean Vuong's family background influence his creativity?
So I just want to say you and your family immigrated from Vietnam to the United States when you were just two years old. And I know your mother worked in a nail salon for 25 years to support the family. And she watched the Oprah show every day at four o'clock. That TV would be on. That's what you told me when I called you.
Sometimes it's just us three. Me, you and her. On slow days, I would answer the phone at the nail salon and, you know, she would be there working. And what's so interesting was that when you called me. This is Oprah. How are you? What? This is Oprah. How are you? I recognized the voice right away. I just didn't believe that you were talking to me for any real reason. But when I heard your voice, I said, this is the voice I heard all my life at four o'clock when I answered the phone. And, you know, I wanted to tell you this, that your voice was a kind of Mediation for all of these women in the nail salon, both the workers and the people who went there to get their nails done. Because I saw them when they came in with their husbands and the husband will wait for a while and then they will leave. And after a while, it will just be all women. And I found that their voices changed. with your voice among them. And as a child, it was so interesting to hear speech. Everyone talking differently. They were more vulnerable. They were more open with each other.
And I got to see my mother kind of use the show as a way to open up for herself and to learn the language. She would not always understand what was happening, but she would have this little trick where every time there was like an inflected moment in the show with your voice, my mother would... work on a client she'd go oh boy and then the client would it always works you could any given time you could just say oh boy and then the client would say hey isn't that right and then she would learn what was happening from them because her voice her head is down she couldn't hear it But I saw this kind of town square that your voice created and the themes and what was really touching for me, and I didn't understand at that time, for a community that I grew up in, working poor, immigrants, Reading was very intimidating. We didn't step into bookstores or libraries. It felt like an impenetrable world that was not for us.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Ocean Vuong and what are his accomplishments?
1:35–2:28
2
How did Ocean Vuong's family background influence his creativity?
2:28–8:48
3
What is the significance of labor and kindness in The Emperor of Gladness?
8:48–14:00
4
How did Ocean Vuong's experiences working at Boston Market shape the novel?
14:00–20:24
5
What does Ocean Vuong say about the writing process and listening?
20:24–27:08
6
Why did Ocean Vuong choose to write about ordinary people and their lives?
27:08–33:41
7
What inspired the relationship between Hai and Grazina in the novel?
33:41–35:45
8
How do themes of loneliness and kindness without hope appear in the story?
35:45–56:32
Speakers
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