The past, as you suggest, is absolutely present at all times and the present is born from the past. I wouldn't want to suggest that the past determines the present.
Chang-Rae LeeMy family immigrated when I was 3, and our predecessors inhabited the Korean Peninsula for as long as can be recalled.
Chang-Rae LeeI think that's great - I just try not to be one of those people. I find the more I think about it, the less free I feel when I write and when I work.
Chang-Rae LeeA tale, like the universe, they tell us, expands ceaselessly each time you examine it, until thereโs finally no telling exactly where it begins, or ends, or where it places you now.
Chang-Rae LeeBy definition it uses and plays and delights in time. It delights in the interlacing of chronologies and the consequences of that interlacing. And those have personal and psychological expressions in a character. Aside from other issues of writing, psychological characterization is what narrative can do best.
Chang-Rae Lee