I have been spending some time reading Buddhist texts and other writings such as Thomas Moore’s original self. It has reminded me to try and stay in touch with my dreams- of which I remember many. My time at the sangha too has deepened me and I have come to realise that writing and Buddhism are life time occupations and it doesn’t matter if it takes me a while to actualise any of it. I have the feeling that what I’m experiencing in Vietnam is planting the seeds for more work to come when I’m back in Australia- and that’s a nice feeling.
I have read a discussion about Shantaram on the Sassparilla website- a literary site based in Australia and they talk about the noisy novel as opposed to the quiet novel where it is all in the character’s heads and nothing much happens. The person whom posted it said the quiet novel is going out of fashion- which I disagree with. There is an audience for both of these kinds of novels and the person whom can marry both styles together is a genius. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright is a fantastic example of someone whom does both.