“One chronicler writes of an area of India during the end of the 20th century: Almost no-one in this slum was poor by Indian benchmarks. ... True, a few residents trapped rats and frogs and fried them for dinner. A few ate the scrub grass at the sewage lake edge. And these individuals, miserable souls, thereby made an inestimable contribution to their neighbors. They gave those slum dwellers who didn't fry rats and eat weeds a sense of their upward mobility.” WritingMadeSoulEndsIndividualPoorCenturyAreasIndiaEdgesDinnerNeighborMiserableIndianGrassContributionLakesWeedTrappedRats20th CenturyFrogsResidentsMobilitySlumsDwellersSewageUpward Mobility Author:Katherine Boo
“When I pick a story, I'm very much aware of the larger issues that it's illuminating. But one of the things that I, as a writer, feel strongly about is that nobody is representative. That's just narrative nonsense. People may be part of a larger story or structure or institution, but they're still people. Making them representative loses sight of that. Which is why a lot of writing about low-income people makes them into saints, perfect in their suffering.” PeopleWritingSufferingPerfectSaintNonsense Author:Katherine Boo
“But if writing about people who are not yourself is illegitimate, then the only legitimate work is autobiography; and as a reader and a citizen, I don’t want to live in that world.” PeopleIfsWorldWantWritingReaderCitizensAutobiography Author:Katherine Boo
