When you live without your own language you feel weightless and, at the same time, overloaded. You breathe another type of air, at a different altitude. You are always aware of the difference.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
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In her book "In Other Words," Jhumpa Lahiri explores the profound effects of living without one's native language. She captures the dual sensations of feeling both light and burdened, illustrating how the absence of a familiar linguistic identity can create a sense of disconnection. This struggle reflects the challenges of adapting to a new environment while longing for the comfort of one's original cultural expression.

Lahiri describes the experience as breathing a different kind of air at an unfamiliar altitude, emphasizing the constant awareness of the disparities between languages. This poignant observation highlights the emotional and psychological complexities faced by those navigating a world where their voice feels silenced or diminished, illustrating the deep bond between language and identity.

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In Other Words
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Jhumpa Lahiri
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Other quotes in In Other Words

Everything has to be reconsidered, shaped anew. Autobiographical fiction, even if it is inspired by reality, by memory, requires a rigorous selection, a merciless cutting. One writes with the pen, but in the end, to create the right form, one has to use, like Matisse, a good pair of scissors.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
Everything has to be reconsidered, shaped anew. Autobiographical fiction, even if it is inspired by reality, by memory, requires a rigorous selection, a merciless cutting. One writes with the pen, but in the end, to create the right form, one has to use, like Matisse, a good pair of scissors.
Why do I write? To investigate the mystery of existence. To tolerate myself. To get closer to everything that is outside of me.If I want to understand what moves me, what confuses me, what pains me--everything that makes me react, in short--I have to put it into words. Writing is my only way of absorbing and organizing life. Otherwise it would terrify me, it would upset me too much.What passes without being put into words, without being transformed and, in a certain sense, purified by the crucible of writing, has no meaning for me. Only words that endure seem real. They have power, a value superior to us.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
Why do I write? To investigate the mystery of existence. To tolerate myself. To get closer to everything that is outside of me.If I want to understand what moves me, what confuses me, what pains me--everything that makes me react, in short--I have to put it into words. Writing is my only way of absorbing and organizing life. Otherwise it would terrify me, it would upset me too much.What passes without being put into words, without being transformed and, in a certain sense, purified by the crucible of writing, has no meaning for me. Only words that endure seem real. They have power, a value superior to us.
But when I come out of the woods, when I see the basket, scarcely a handful of words remain. The majority disappear. They vanish into thin air, they flow like water between my fingers. Because the basket is memory, and memory betrays me, memory doesn't hold up.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
But when I come out of the woods, when I see the basket, scarcely a handful of words remain. The majority disappear. They vanish into thin air, they flow like water between my fingers. Because the basket is memory, and memory betrays me, memory doesn't hold up.
One could say that the mechanism of metamorphosis is the only element of life that never changes. The journey of every individual, every country, every historical epoch, of the entire universe and all it contains, is nothing but a series of changes, at times subtle, at times deep, without which we would stand still. The moments of transition, in which something changes, constitute the backbone of all of us. Whether they are a salvation or a loss, they are moments that we tend to remember. They give a structure to our existence. Almost all the rest is oblivion.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
One could say that the mechanism of metamorphosis is the only element of life that never changes. The journey of every individual, every country, every historical epoch, of the entire universe and all it contains, is nothing but a series of changes, at times subtle, at times deep, without which we would stand still. The moments of transition, in which something changes, constitute the backbone of all of us. Whether they are a salvation or a loss, they are moments that we tend to remember. They give a structure to our existence. Almost all the rest is oblivion.
The unknown words remind me that there's a lot I don't know in this world.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
The unknown words remind me that there's a lot I don't know in this world.
Why, as an adult, as a writer, am I interested in this new relationship with imperfection? What does it offer me? I would say a stunning clarity, a more profound self-awareness. Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
Why, as an adult, as a writer, am I interested in this new relationship with imperfection? What does it offer me? I would say a stunning clarity, a more profound self-awareness. Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.
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Other quotes in language barrier

When you live without your own language you feel weightless and, at the same time, overloaded. You breathe another type of air, at a different altitude. You are always aware of the difference.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
When you live without your own language you feel weightless and, at the same time, overloaded. You breathe another type of air, at a different altitude. You are always aware of the difference.
Without language you can't feel that you have a legitimate, respected presence. You are without a voice, without power.
Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words
Without language you can't feel that you have a legitimate, respected presence. You are without a voice, without power.
Despite this inundation of rape imagery, where we are immersed in a rape culture-one that is overly permissive toward all manner of sexual violence-not enough victims of gang rape speak out about the toll the experience exacts. The right stories are not being told, or we're not writing enough about the topic of rape in the right ways. Perhaps we too casually use the term rape culture to address the very specific problems that rise from a culture mired in sexual violence. Should we, instead, focus on rapist culture because decades of addressing rape culture has accomplished so little?
Roxane Gay Bad Feminist
Despite this inundation of rape imagery, where we are immersed in a rape culture-one that is overly permissive toward all manner of sexual violence-not enough victims of gang rape speak out about the toll the experience exacts. The right stories are not being told, or we're not writing enough about the topic of rape in the right ways. Perhaps we too casually use the term rape culture to address the very specific problems that rise from a culture mired in sexual violence. Should we, instead, focus on rapist culture because decades of addressing rape culture has accomplished so little?
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