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Interview: Sarah Zama

Writing in your second language is the strangest experience. I've been writing almost exclusively in English for about 20 years now, and – this might sound odd – I feel more comfortable discussing some subjects, like fiction and creative writing, in English rather than Italian.
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I feel the same, and I'd like to know if it's an experience that other people who write in a second language share as well.
 
I agree the 1920s make for an great setting because of the blurring between what we might look back on as the "distant" past and the "modern era", add into that you've people coming out of the upheaval of the Great War and subsequent conflicts there's a lot to draw upon. Not sure I agree however that this is gone by the time the 1930s roll around; lessened, naturally, but still feels like it's there.
 
RyanF said:
I agree the 1920s make for an great setting because of the blurring between what we might look back on as the "distant" past and the "modern era", add into that you've people coming out of the upheaval of the Great War and subsequent conflicts there's a lot to draw upon. Not sure I agree however that this is gone by the time the 1930s roll around; lessened, naturally, but still feels like it's there.
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I remember being in my eleventh grade history class and feeling that the 1920s were the first time America started to look like a country I recognized - cars and radios and the like.

Although this can likewise take a rather nasty tone - remember that the black part of Tulsa was bombed with an airplane.
 
SpanishSpy said:
Although this can likewise take a rather nasty tone - remember that the black part of Tulsa was bombed with an airplane.
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Unfortunately, I think the racial violence in the 20s is another point for 'looking like a country you recognised' rather than a point against it.

When the BLM protests were happening in 2020, I was reflecting on how it was a century since Red Summer had happened, and that came during a pandemic as well - yet there's no apparent connection between either pandemic and the ensuing violence. Definitely a dissertation in that.
 
Susie, the protagonist of 'Ghosts through the Cracks', is a poor Chinese immigrant who as the wife of a Chigagoan speakeasy owner has managed to get into the middle class suburban lifestyle.
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One follow-up question I'd like to as Sarah is whether that speakeasy really existed. I found in the course of my own research that Chicago's most famous Chinese restaurant in the early 20th century, the King Joy Lo, was used as a front for money-laundering operations by Kang Youwei's secret society.
 
RyanF said:
I agree the 1920s make for an great setting because of the blurring between what we might look back on as the "distant" past and the "modern era", add into that you've people coming out of the upheaval of the Great War and subsequent conflicts there's a lot to draw upon. Not sure I agree however that this is gone by the time the 1930s roll around; lessened, naturally, but still feels like it's there.
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I think you could certainly do that with the 1930s and link it with the 20s, but I can see why Zama's got the 20s seperate - between the Depression, Hitler, and the starting shots of the Axis (Spain, Manchuria, Abyssinia, Munich etc), it's popularly remembered & treated like the decade leading up to the Second World War (even though rationally, so's the 1920s and everything in the 1930s is carrying on from events before).
 
Charles EP M. said:
I think you could certainly do that with the 1930s and link it with the 20s, but I can see why Zama's got the 20s seperate - between the Depression, Hitler, and the starting shots of the Axis (Spain, Manchuria, Abyssinia, Munich etc), it's popularly remembered & treated like the decade leading up to the Second World War (even though rationally, so's the 1920s and everything in the 1930s is carrying on from events before).
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I certainly get the position even if I don't 100% agree with it. You could make a similar argument that the whole interwar period is just leading up to the Second World War from the decisions made in 1918-19. Maybe I just think the two decades are closer linked than Zama does, though the onset of the Great Depression makes for almost a perfect demarcation point between the popular idea of the Roaring 20s and the Dirty 30s. Think I personally regard them both as the Interwar Era (or Christie Times) and then into the 20s and the 30s; and were I to use a sort of Dieselpunk setting I might draw upon both depending on the story/characters being told.
 
RyanF said:
I certainly get the position even if I don't 100% agree with it. You could make a similar argument that the whole interwar period is just leading up to the Second World War from the decisions made in 1918-19. Maybe I just think the two decades are closer linked than Zama does, though the onset of the Great Depression makes for almost a perfect demarcation point between the popular idea of the Roaring 20s and the Dirty 30s. Think I personally regard them both as the Interwar Era (or Christie Times) and then into the 20s and the 30s; and were I to use a sort of Dieselpunk setting I might draw upon both depending on the story/characters being told.
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I mean there's definite links and continuity between them, but I think 'the 20s and 30s were basically the same period' is something that's largely a feature of the British (maybe British Imperial) context- the 20s were a time of struggling economic growth, increasing calls for workers rights, the General Strike, more rights for women, an upper class who were struggling to hold onto their ancient privileges as the cost of running their estates increased and an ever more powerful middle class of well-to-do homeowners. The 30s carried all this on for the most part (unemployment spiked at the start of the 30s but it was still about 94% of the 1929 level in 1933) but added a backdrop of increasing concerns about the deteriorating foreign position.

Ironically enough, I think Italy's probably the other country which has a good claim to being essentially a continuum between the 20s and 30s- Mussolini took power in 1922 after all.
 
Alex Richards said:
I mean there's definite links and continuity between them, but I think 'the 20s and 30s were basically the same period' is something that's largely a feature of the British (maybe British Imperial) context- the 20s were a time of struggling economic growth, increasing calls for workers rights, the General Strike, more rights for women, an upper class who were struggling to hold onto their ancient privileges as the cost of running their estates increased and an ever more powerful middle class of well-to-do homeowners. The 30s carried all this on for the most part (unemployment spiked at the start of the 30s but it was still about 94% of the 1929 level in 1933) but added a backdrop of increasing concerns about the deteriorating foreign position.
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Now there's really something to this as to why I think there's a lot more continuity to both decades than might be as apparent in other contexts.
 
RyanF said:
Now there's really something to this as to why I think there's a lot more continuity to both decades than might be as apparent in other contexts.
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And I think the fact that the US is one of those countries pretty much at the 'Change' extreme of the continuum is why that sharp division is so common in culture- I mean just consider the way how when people talk about the Golden Age of Hollywood they're still talking about the 1920s- a period where the films are mostly silent.
 
Alex Richards said:
And I think the fact that the US is one of those countries pretty much at the 'Change' extreme of the continuum is why that sharp division is so common in culture- I mean just consider the way how when people talk about the Golden Age of Hollywood they're still talking about the 1920s- a period where the films are mostly silent.
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Yes, where as we all know the real Golden Age of Hollywood was 1975-1982 when the three greatest films of all time were made.
 
FriendlyGhost said:
I do wonder what @RyanF 's 'greatest films of all times' are though.
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Oh, if you follow the clues cunningly hidden in each and every message you can piece it all together like a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Though I'd suggest the thread to discuss Sarah's interview might not be the best venue.
 
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