Ha Jin, On Description and Detail in Fiction

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HA JIN: In writing, it just came naturally because I wrote about the places I knew. And so it was almost natural. But in books like the War Trash, and some other books and their historical fiction, I was not there. I had to be very careful, where often I look at pictures and magazines, whatever sources available, just to be sure that I really had a physical sense of that place. A lot of the things, you know, like a taste and a smell, these cannot be physically experienced by words. That's OK. But when we describe them, that we really bring another kind of sensation. I think Harry James used the word, material sensation, so all the details as opposed to the creative kind of material sensation in the pros, that will give a lot of texture to the writing. I think what's important is really to seize the details. The really we're reading authentic details. Just a few good details can really convince the reader that this is the place. That's most important. I think that's a mark of a talent. If a writer has the eye for good details, that's really something. And that means the person can go far in their writing, in the craft of fiction. OK. Let me give you my example about in Waiting, and the hospital scene, and there are a lot of flowers planted in the hospital, but they used horse dung as a fertilizer. That's important, because that was where, but it was also authentic. There's a woman in the hospital. She was getting treated, but the intern saw lice in her hair. Lack of Sisomicin. So I think those details are really important details. They really review the quality of life of this character. So not just whether they are dirty or messy, but behind these, there is the-- what kind of life is implied? So that kind of details I think important and essential.