I went to hear Dr. James Levine. He is the author of The Blue Notebook. His lecture was located in the Auditorium. The room was about one-half full. I went to this lecture because we will be reading his book in this class. I had no expectations going into the lecture.
The primary focus of his presentation was his experiences in India. Upon Dr. Levine’s arrival his first time in India he was kidnapped and held in a cement cell for four days. He did not explain who kidnapped him or why. It was an amazing story. After he was rescued by the police he went to visit the Taj Mahal, and then he joined the team he was to work with in India.
Dr. Levine described the day he saw a young prostitute writing in her blue notebook. He wanted to see her notebook and she showed it to him. She had no expression on her face as she gave it to him. He knew later that it was wrong to ask to see it. He then went on to describe how he wrote his book based on her, and how he got it published. He wrote 1000 words a day for 60 days. He had no agent and his young daughter suggested he get one. He did, and the woman who published his book had also published The Kite Runner.
The one thing Dr. Levine spent time talking about was the Sparrow Program in India. It was set up to pull children out of prostitution and educate them. He described the school program that provides the education for the children. Many have had success and gone on to college.
Dr. Levine did not read from his book. He just talked about his life regarding this book, and the experiences he has had in India. He was soft spoken and energetic. Unfortunately, he was sometimes hard to hear as he moved away from the microphone.
The first question Dr. Levine was asked was what his training was to write a book. He said he reads mostly magazines and was not a well-read person. Since I have not read the book the questions and answers about the book did not have much meaning. His advice about writing is to have no fear of anyone or anything, and to write without hesitation.
The main thing I learned from his talk was about the terrible issue of child prostitution. There are 300,000 child prostitutes in Mumbai. The reason the children make good prostitutes is that they do not know anything different in life. They start at a young age. There are also many child prostitutes in Minnesota. Dr. Levine really cares about this issue. I enjoyed him as a speaker.
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