Viet Thanh Nguyen Gives His First Norton Lecture: ‘On the Double, or Inauthenticity’

Novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen gave the first of his six scheduled Norton Lectures, entitled “On the Double, or Inauthenticity,” on Sept. 19 in Sanders Theatre. Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” is a University Professor at the University of Southern California.

Nguyen’s series, “To Save and Destroy: On Writing as an Other,” is the 61st in Norton Lectures’ history and the first to be given in-person on Harvard’s campus since 2018.

In his introduction, Nguyen immediately opened up about his difficulty in making the decision to accept the offer to host his own series of Norton Lectures. He shared the story of how this offer caused some of his self-doubts and insecurities to resurface.

“The large button of my vanity was pressed. Immediately after that, the even larger button of my insecurity,” Nguyen said.

This moment of introspection transitioned into the larger theme that his lecture covered: The concept of the “other.” Nguyen described the “other” as “those who are outcast from or exploited by the powerful norm of their society.”

Nguyen explained that many artists have this “other” within themselves and use their work to discuss it. However, artists often have to balance their creative visions with financial concerns. In selling their work on a larger market, artists are often forced to exploit and discard parts of their “other” in order to be financially successful. Nguyen then expanded on how the stories of “others” can be forced into a box by the market.

“The sob story, gay, refugee, immigrant, Asian, or otherwise, is perhaps the dominant kind of story the ‘other’ is expected to tell and to sell,” Nguyen said. “The trauma that gives the ‘other’ value and also devalues the ‘other.’”

Nguyen urged the audience to reconsider the complexities that come with the stories of “others.” He then shared three common temptations that those wishing to write about the “other” tend to fall into.

First, Nguyen warned against the tendency to idealize or sentimentalize, or to turn the “other” into either a victim or an angel. He made it clear not to “treat the idea of the ‘other’ as sacred, or as holy.” Instead, Nguyen emphasized that the “other” can hold stories and emotions outside of what is normally prescribed: The “other” can be tragic, but also angry, caring, bitter, and horrible.

“We deny ourselves the full power of art, which comes from grappling with the otherness inside of ourselves,” said Nguyen.

Second, Nguyen warned those who write about their experiences as the “other” against the tendency to “separate oneself from the herd.” Nguyen categorized this temptation as an internalization of “the master’s logic” — the master being those who control the narrative in society, a concept that Nguyen emphasized throughout the lecture.

Instead, Nguyen urged authors “to claim both sides of the double as well as everything in between, which the masters have always done.”

Finally, Nguyen touched upon a third temptation when writing about the “other,” which is to presume that one has the capability to fully know the “other.” He showed that it is sometimes impossible to even understand what the “other” is.

“Otherness is always elusive, even to the ‘other,’” Nguyen continued.

Nguyen finished the lecture by explaining how writers can overcome these temptations.

“The writers who are ‘others’ must nevertheless fall and rise, fall and fail, again and again,” Nguyen said. “This otherness and its history, the man's grief. But the challenge of the writer as an ‘other’ is to expand that grief, to make it ever more capacious.”

“Perhaps only by expanding our grief might we be able to leave our trauma behind. And in sharing our burden of writing, of representation, of otherness, we might also transform that burden into a gift,” Nguyen concluded.

After finishing his lecture, Nguyen engaged in a short, less formal discussion with fellow author Min Hyoung Song, the Chair of Boston College’s English Department, and took questions from the audience.

Nguyen’s next lecture will be held on Oct. 17 and will coincide with the release of his newest book, “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial.”

—Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com.