05-27-09 Expatriate Literature, open chat
The transcript below covers the complete #litchat conversation on May 27, 2009. The order appears sequentially from the first post to the final post. Topic was open discussion of expatriate literature.
| Thandelike does expat lit deserve a shelf of its own? i’ll guest host #litchat May 29 4pm EDT http://tiny.cc/Evr6m please RT! -7:45 AM May 26th, 2009 |
| EliseBlackwell Want to live in another country vicariously? Catch @Thandelike hosting #litchat on 5/29, 4 pm edt. Topic: Expat literature. -7:47 AM May 26th, 2009 |
| mariaschneider RT @EliseBlackwell Want to live in another country vicariously? Catch @Thandelike hosting #litchat 5/29, 4 pm edt. Topic: Expat literature. -7:49 AM May 26th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit RT @Thandelike: does expat lit deserve a shelf of its own? i’ll guest host #litchat May 29 4pm EDT http://tiny.cc/Evr6m please RT! -7:51 AM May 26th, 2009 |
| TaraAgacayak RT @Thandelike: does expat lit deserve a shelf of its own? i’ll guest host #litchat May 29 4pm EDT http://tiny.cc/Evr6m please RT! -8:46 AM May 26th, 2009 |
| LitChat Do you have questions about expat literature? DM or @ your questions for #litchat discussion today at 4-5 pm/edt. -5:17 AM May 27th, 2009 |
| agnieszkasshoes @LitChat expat #litchat fascinating. I’m talking on same at conference next month. Chinese sculptress living in Budapest -5:30 AM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike does expat lit deserve a shelf of its own? i’ll guest host #litchat May 29 4pm EDT http://tiny.cc/wYbaE or join upen chat today 4pm EDT -11:05 AM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul It’s not just travel; you’re living in a (sometimes completely) different world. I think it deserves its own shelf, yes. #litchat -12:59 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @hermitpaul (having trouble with tweetchat) yes. it’s real life, not life suspended. #litchat -1:04 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit They shouldn’t be lumped with travel lit. Where are they usually placed? #litchat -1:05 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @mdbenoit travel, memoir, ‘adventure’ and ‘classics’ are some i’ve seen #litchat -1:06 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit None of those categories fit, really. #litchat -1:07 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs I’ve found expat lit in with general fiction #litchat -1:07 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @VanessaDobbs yes, that too. basically subsumed by whatever other topic or genre it seems to be, with expatriatism unremarked upon #litchat -1:08 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Welcome to #litchat. Today we’re continuing our discussion of expat lit. Please send questions for discussion and we’ll post to the feed. -1:09 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat are you out there? everyone else: who are your favorite expat writers and why? #litchat -1:09 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @Thandelike yes sometimes difficult to distinguish unless aware through reviews or recommends #litchat -1:09 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit @VanessaDobbs Finding the books is definitely a challenge sometimes. #litchat -1:10 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| deberryandgrant RT @LitChat: Welcome 2 #litchat. 2day we’re continuing R discussion of expat lit. Please send questions 4 discussion & we’ll post 2 the … -1:10 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana Jumping in … hi everyone! #litchat -1:11 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat i mentioned Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon on Monday, which introduced me to the idea of longterm life abroad #litchat -1:11 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat reading Tahir Shah’s The Caliph’s House now. makes me glad not to be an expat in Casablanca, or at least a homeowner #litchat -1:12 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Sorry for delays. Tweetchat is sometimes a boogey. Need to always remember to click the Tweet Chat button. (Not just enter.) #litchat -1:12 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Feel free to introduce yourself as we continue talking about expat lit. #litchat -1:13 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana @LitChat That wretched button trips me up every time, plus need to type s-l-o-w-l-y #litchat -1:14 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat The Guardian (I think) just posted their top 10 expat lit books. i will post that link on Friday… #litchat -1:14 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Q1 fm @Thandelike: Does expat lit deserve a shelf of its own? #litchat -1:15 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @Thandelike will look forward to it #litchat -1:15 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @LitChat I don’t know that the question is deserve/not deserve. The question is whether that is helpful to reader and/or author. #litchat -1:17 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| susanmpls re: Q1: IMO, no, expat lit shouldn’t have shelf of it’s own b/c I think most readers will look in literature or memoir. #litchat -1:18 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit Are there enough to warrant a shelf? #litchat -1:18 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @BookingIt I agree.Itwouldbe helpful to me as a reader.Even if it was a display on a table #litchat -1:19 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana How do bookshops decide where to shelve stuff? A mystery to me. Anyone booksellers here today? #litchat -1:19 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana Borders shelves literature and fiction in together which could be seen as redundancy I suppose. #litchat -1:21 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul Could anyone recommend titles of this genre? I’ve spent significant amounts of time overseas, but I’ve always returned home. #litchat -1:21 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @VanessaDobbs I’d like it shelved generally, w/ specific displays or lists to call out recommendations. But that’s just me 🙂 #litchat -1:22 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit With online sellers increasing, are we talking more category than shelf space? #litchat -1:22 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit If I wanted to start reading expat lit but didn’t know authors, how would I go about finding them? #litchat -1:23 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @mdbenoit Good point. I like on-line categories to be as specific as possible! #litchat -1:24 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @mdbenoit I was just going to ask that #litchat -1:24 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul Everyone always wants the “best” of a category that other books are ignored & that irritates me somewhat; they’re all worth a read. #litchat -1:26 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul Here is a link to The Guardian site’s “Malcolm Pryce’s Top 10 Expatriate Tales”: http://tr.im/mAWP if anyone’s interested. #LitChat -1:28 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat publishers assign genre, not booksellers. upper left on rear cover #litchat -1:29 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| stujallen hi all coming in late #litchat -1:30 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @hermitpaul But if we can’t read everything, why not start with “best”, go deeper if category appeals? #litchat -1:30 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat the idea behind Q1 is that there is a body of work — perhaps even cohesive — that is going unrecognized #litchat -1:30 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| susanmpls @hermitpaul Must disagree. Some bks are better than others for first time readers in a given category. (i.e. Chekhov/Russian Lit) #litchat -1:32 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana A famous economist wrote a novel that I loved; but the Harvard Coop bookshop foolishly shelved it with non-fiction. #litchat -1:32 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @Thandelike Certainly I’d never thought of it as a unit before. Would changing shelving broaden reach or limit it? #litchat -1:33 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs is tweetchat broken #litchat -1:34 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| susanmpls @maggiedana Havard Coop may have put the bk where they thought most readers would look for it. When was bksllr I sometimes did same #litchat -1:34 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @BookingIt perhaps depends on readership but there are dual genres like “Autobiography/Psychology” expat lit cd use #litchat -1:35 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| stujallen @VanessaDobbs just what i was thinking #litchat -1:35 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana @susanmpls Sadly, on the dusty 4th floor where nobody but economics majors would see it. I pointed this out, but …. no dice #litchat -1:36 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Q2 fm @Hugh_Ryan: Is ExpL about home country often about a “mythical” country that is stuck, culturally, in the moment they left? #litchat -1:36 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mizwrite Jumping in late – Thx for link, @hermitpaul. I think it would be great to have expat shelved separately to call attn. Intriguing. #litchat -1:36 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat as it stands what happens when you ask a librarian or bookseller for expat lit? do they even know what you mean? #litchat -1:37 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @LitChat that’s emigree lit again IMHO. #litchat -1:37 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat @VanessaDobbs I ham having trouble with TweetChat today, so if you can stand the Twitter search feature, perhaps that’s working. #litchat -1:38 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| stujallen q2 sometimes but don t we all like to look back with rose tint specs #litchat -1:38 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul TweetGrid is working fine, “Twitter” itself is just a little slow. #litchat -1:40 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit TweetChat doesn’t seem to work so I’m trying TweetDeck #litchat -1:41 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit @stujallen You could also say that of memoirs #litchat -1:43 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| corb21 Hello #litchat…what’s the dilly? #litchat -1:43 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana Am back on Twitter. Hopefully faster than tweetchat. #litchat -1:44 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @mdbenoit TweetDeck & Twitter search both seem to be working, I couldn’t even log into TweetChat earlier. #litchat -1:44 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| corb21 I’m getting real-time search results at TweetGrid http://tweetgrid.com/ #litchat -1:45 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| corb21 I’m getting real-time search results at TweetGrid http://tweetgrid.com/ #litchat -1:45 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat @corb21 We’re continuing our talk about expat lit. Welcome! #litchat -1:46 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul Without being back home, you can’t talk about it; newspapers & such media don’t do it the same justice. Familiar feelings. Longing. #litchat -1:46 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| mdbenoit Sorry, people, it’s just not working for me. Will try on Friday. #litchat -1:46 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat @mdbenoit Sorry. Sometimes it’s a terrible tech day. We’ll look forward to chatting with you on Friday. #litchat -1:48 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul After returning to England, it’s always been “the same”; where I live; places I frequent. They never change. Not always “mythical”. #litchat -1:50 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| Thandelike @litchat me too, signing off, exhausted (it’s midnight here). see you all on Friday! #litchat -1:50 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| maggiedana @Thandelike Thanks for being here. See you Friday. Hope twitter is faster then. #litchat -1:51 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @hermitpaul true am notexpat but left lincs several years ago.Still same when go back #litchat -1:51 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs @Thandelike goodnight catch you Friday I hope #litchat -1:52 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| BookingIt @LitChat I’m heading out as well, I hope to be back Friday. Thanks for the chat! #litchat -1:54 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Final Q: Please post answers on LitChat blog: Who are your favorite expat lit authors and why? http://www.litchat.net. See you Friday. #litchat -1:56 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| hermitpaul Oh well. Goodnight, then. Time for more reading, then 1000 or more words before sleep. Take care all of you. #litchat -1:57 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| VanessaDobbs night everybody #litchat -1:57 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat Despite Twitterfail, we had some terrific comments. #litchat thanks to @Thandelike @hermitpaul @BookingIt @VanessaDobbs @maggiedana. -2:00 PM May 27th, 2009 |
| LitChat More #litchat thanks to @mdbenoit @corb21 @stujallen @mizwrite @susanmpls @deberryandgrant. See you all on Friday at 4 pm/edt. -2:02 PM May 27th, 2009 |
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