Christina Meldrum's Blog - Posts Tagged "madapple"
AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY, MADAPPLE and Justice
With my second novel AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY being officially released in a few days, another common question I've received from advance readers is: why another trial? In my first novel MADAPPLE, the protagonist Aslaug was on trial. In my second novel AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY, the mother in the family, an American woman named Seena, is on trial--albeit Seena's trial takes place in a village in West Africa, in a "customary court."
So why another trial? Because as a former lawyer and human rights worker, I am interested in justice: What is it? How do we decide? Is justice independent of culture? Or is there some fundamental form of justice that exists irrespective of culture? The trials in both of my books were means by which I hoped to explore these questions. Seena's trial in Africa is dramatically different than the trial in MADAPPLE, where Aslaug is said to be "innocent until proven guilty." And yet, is it really that different? Of course, in some fundamental respects the trials are night and day. As Seena says, the characters of Okomfo and Queen Mother are her "accusers, judge and jury." But as the trial in MADAPPLE suggests, our system of litigation, with its lawyers, judges and juries, does not necessarily arrive at truth in the end—any more than do Okomfo and Queen Mother. Cultural assumptions and prejudices play a role in both trials. Hence, the question: particularly with regard to the rights of any subset of society, be it women or the disabled or a particular ethnic group, should cultural norms be relevant to determinations of what is just and unjust?
So why another trial? Because as a former lawyer and human rights worker, I am interested in justice: What is it? How do we decide? Is justice independent of culture? Or is there some fundamental form of justice that exists irrespective of culture? The trials in both of my books were means by which I hoped to explore these questions. Seena's trial in Africa is dramatically different than the trial in MADAPPLE, where Aslaug is said to be "innocent until proven guilty." And yet, is it really that different? Of course, in some fundamental respects the trials are night and day. As Seena says, the characters of Okomfo and Queen Mother are her "accusers, judge and jury." But as the trial in MADAPPLE suggests, our system of litigation, with its lawyers, judges and juries, does not necessarily arrive at truth in the end—any more than do Okomfo and Queen Mother. Cultural assumptions and prejudices play a role in both trials. Hence, the question: particularly with regard to the rights of any subset of society, be it women or the disabled or a particular ethnic group, should cultural norms be relevant to determinations of what is just and unjust?
