2010.10.18: October 18, 2010: Peace Corps volunteers Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Peter Hessler and Paul Theroux, born and raised in the United States, developed their approach to life and writing through their experiences abroad
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2010.10.18: October 18, 2010: Peace Corps volunteers Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Peter Hessler and Paul Theroux, born and raised in the United States, developed their approach to life and writing through their experiences abroad
Peace Corps volunteers Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Peter Hessler and Paul Theroux, born and raised in the United States, developed their approach to life and writing through their experiences abroad
"I was an angry student," said Paul Theroux, "and a very agitated young man." After his time at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he volunteered for the Peace Corps and was sent to Malawi. While teaching English there, he came in frequent contact with local villagers, some of whom had been old enough to remember the turn of the 20th century and who had a vivid recollection of uprisings and the history of their country. He said that this had an effect on him as a writer and changed his perspective on the world. "I was able to better understand America from the viewpoint [of] another country," he said.
Peace Corps volunteers Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Peter Hessler and Paul Theroux, born and raised in the United States, developed their approach to life and writing through their experiences abroad
American authors travel, write the world
October 18, 2010
by Ian Whitaker
Caption: RPCV Paul Theroux. Phaoto: Kent Buenaventura | The Rebel Yell
Fifty years ago on Oct. 14, 1960, President John F. Kennedy laid the foundation for what would eventually become the Peace Corps.
In celebration of the occasion, the Black Mountain Institute hosted their latest gathering on Thursday at the Doc Rando Recital Hall in Beam Music Center, with a panel of internationally recognized American writers.
The topic for the night was "Writing the World: American Authors Looking Outward."
Headlining the event were writers Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Peter Hessler, and Paul Theroux.
The panelists were all former Peace Corps volunteers, born and raised in the United States, who developed their approach to life and writing through their experiences abroad.
Writer and former Peace Corps volunteer Marnie Mueller moderated the discussion.
Hessler, who taught English in China during the 1990s and later worked as the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, met the citizens of rural areas at a time when many Chinese were moving to the city in order to start businesses and seek better lives.
"Culture plays through regular people," he said, describing his experiences travelling by Jeep Cherokee through China and picking up hitchhikers, mostly migrant workers and women who worked in factories. He said he didn't go into the Peace Corps with the idea of becoming a writer, but the experience became the most important part of his education as an author, he said.
Mary-Ann Tirone Smith served in Cameroon in the 1960s, after being trained at Columbia University. "Writing had become my refuge by then," she said.
And even though she had already started writing by the time she joined, she said that her time in Cameroon had profound effect on her.
"The greatest thing I got, as a writer, was the exposure to different languages," she said. "I knew I could write about anything I wanted to."
Theroux described his life growing up in the tumult of the 1960s, which affected him as a student.
Kent Buenaventura | The Rebel Yell
Paul Theroux
"I was an angry student," he said, "and a very agitated young man."
After his time at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he volunteered for the Peace Corps and was sent to Malawi.
While teaching English there, he came in frequent contact with local villagers, some of whom had been old enough to remember the turn of the 20th century and who had a vivid recollection of uprisings and the history of their country.
He said that this had an effect on him as a writer and changed his perspective on the world. "I was able to better understand America from the viewpoint [of] another country," he said.
A recurring theme during the evening was the deep impression that the Peace Corps left on the speakers' lives.
They said that the Peace Corps is less about giving and more about what is taken away.
"Being in the Peace Corps shows you the limitations of philanthropy and education," Theroux said. "[In Malawi], the Peace Corps practically was the school system."
Smith said her time in Cameroon made her the writer she has become. "The Peace Corps gave me the tools to write," she said.
All three of the speakers later went on to become accomplished authors in their own right. As the platform was opened up to include the audience, some writers in the crowd asked for advice.
Mueller advised them to listen, saying that the whole world opens up to those who do.
"Look for the story beneath the story," Smith said, emphasizing the importance to aspiring writers of delving underneath the commonplace.
"Go away. Leave home," Theroux said. "Coming home from abroad, you'll find that you can't explain it to people. Their eyes glaze over. That's why we become writers."
Theroux said that he had to leave the world he thought he knew to find the one that truly exists. "The world was elsewhere," he said, "and I found it among thatched roofs and children riding bicycles."
But Theroux also said that there is another way for aspiring writers to discover the world.
"You have to read and you have to make an inner journey as well," he said, closing the evening. "Where you end up is of no importance."
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: October, 2010; Writing; The Third Goal; RPCV Paul Theroux (Malawi); RPCV Peter Hessler (China); Nevada
When this story was posted in March 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: UNLV's Rebel Yell
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Writing; Third Goal; Theroux; Hessler
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