Obviously imagination cannot be taught, but imagination comes differently to every individual. It usually comes in the form of inspiration. I think that Nair finds his inspiration in topics he finds worth addressing, like environmental issues or representation, or in just small yet prominent moments from day-to-day life.
I think his method of finding inspiration comes out in his poems somewhat. When he read his poems out loud during the presentation, it was similar to how a prose and sort of conversation-like. You can still tell that it’s too awkward to be used in a normal conversation (and not in a bad way), but it’s hard to tell when one line ends and another begins. But his message is still clear despite the blending style.
I think a lesson I learned from his presentation that would help me as either a writer or poet is what he said about exploring one’s identity rather than following trends. Even though it’s easier to follow trends, but it’s ultimately better for yourself to find your own identity. I also think that what he said about poetry being malleable and that it can be used in relation to other forms of art is something interesting to keep in mind. He seems to support collaborative work between other artists of different fields, and I think that working with other people would open a lot of different perspectives and a variety of sources of inspiration.
I found it surprising that he converted his poetry to songs. Although it was catchy and sounded nice, it still had it’s own message within, which I think was about how cliches are still useful. I’m not really sure; my memory’s kind of hazy and I usually can’t follow a song’s lyrics during the first play through. But I found that really creative because making a song is hard because trying to find a rhythm and beat and a catchy chorus is challenging, but also trying to implement a meaning or story into it just adds onto the hardship of the task.
I think his advice on travel will stick with me because I feel like most of his inspiration, at least for a few of his books, comes from seeing other places and getting out of his country’s own cultural bubble and understanding different perspectives.
Five Questions I Had, I Guess:
- Does Nair find himself driven mostly by inspiration, or does he also address some issues in the world, like environmental ones shown in Plasticpelago? From the presentation, he said that he tries not to put his own agenda onto other people, but with Plasticpelago didn’t he just do so? Does he address problems with his own opinion in other pieces, and does he do this often? Or does he just do this occasionally because his inspiration just matched up with this issue?
- Do current events influence what his poems are about?
- How hard was it to find a publishing company willing to publish his work when he first started out?
- Now that he has more experience, what qualities does he look for in a publishing company? What is his process for choosing where to go for publishing?
- Does he have themes he tends to write about more than others? Or does he try to cover a wide range of topics as equally as he can?
