“Where the Past Begins (post 2)” by Amy Tan: Her novels are written by a doppelgänger who wants to be acknowledged

“…the first-person fictional consciousness is not me, unless you think my doppelgänger should get credit as a separate entity. And now, in just raising the rhetorical question, she evidently thinks she should be acknowledged.

“So let me rephrase: I am the author of a novel told by a doppelgänger in possession of my thoughts, who inserts her subconscious into my subconscious, which is rather like being unaware that someone has deftly slipped her hands into mine. My hands are not the ones tapping the keyboard, although I still believe they are, and these words you are reading are entirely hers, which I still believe are mine” (1, p. 226).

1. Amy Tan. Where the Past Begins (a Writer’s Memoir). New York, ecco/HarperCollins, 2017.

2018

“Where the Past Begins (A Writer’s Memoir)” by Amy Tan: In interview, Amy Tan says, “I write in a fugue state, and I don’t remember what I’ve written”

Amy Tan says she writes in a fugue in an interview on this book with Publisher’s Weekly (1).

In the book itself, she says that she had her most extensive and intensive fugue while writing her third novel: “Looking back, those fifty pages seem like a miracle to me. I have never been in a similar fugue state since, neither in length [twelve hours] nor intensity” (2, p. 38).

The Publisher’s Weekly interview also includes the following:

Q. You’ve observed that the process of writing is “the painful recovery of things that are lost.” Was this book painful?

A. Extremely. I think that’s why I was very reluctant to have it published, because everything about it was so fresh and painful and I needed to protect it more. During the writing I was often left shaking, crying, and dazed. But I was also able to go back and be with the person I was at the time and say, “Yeah that was wrong and shouldn’t have happened,” and cry about it. At the same time I’m an adult saying, “How interesting that you resisted people’s expectations, and how good is that!” (1).

I have just started reading this memoir, and will be interested to see how Amy Tan understands: 1. her fugue states, and 2. conversing with her child-aged self.

1. PW Talks with Amy Tan, October 6, 2017. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/74982-discovering-the-past-pw-talks-with-amy-tan.html

2. Amy Tan. Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir. New York, ecco/HarperCollins, 2017.