One of those ‘issue’ pieces which stupid writers post on their blogs to ruin their reputation in public
I saw a couple of pieces circulating via The Guardian this week about cultural appropriation in fiction. First writer gives a keynote speech and says, more or less, “Hope that concept dies soon, because it’s offensive to me”. Second writer says, more or less, “Hope that writer dies soon, because she’s as offensive to me as cultural appropriation is” (I exaggerate… slightly).
I found both perspectives unhelpful, though the first writer’s sense of absolutism struck me as closer to useful than the second one’s – but then it would, wouldn’t it? Why would I want to accept being restricted to only writing about over-weight hairy-white middle-aged males from a patriarchal society which thinks it’s better than everyone else’s (I exaggerate… slightly) simply because that’s what I am? And if, for example, I write a story about a self-harming woman (which I’m not) or (which I’m not) of course I don’t want to see myself as a bad person for doing so… but actually I’m in denial, and a horrible cultural appropriator. Damn.
Well, neither writer was convincing to me. Both take provocative stances to make a point, one not valuable, one not well made. The first argument dismisses or plays upon presumed failures of judgement pro and con, but says little about what a writer entering (for them) “alien territory” should do to be effective in their goal. The second argument equates to a call for protective segregation or a demand for reparations while laying the fault with other writers, instead of a culture in publishing that may well disadvantage some people’s voices in favour of others.
Fortunately, this morning I read an article called Representing My Equals by Nisi Shawl. Click.
Note: if you really want to read them, the Guardian articles I mentioned at the beginning are these: A and B. And there’s an overview here: C. But if I were you, I’d ignore them and click on the picture.
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Sorry for the length, I was apparently writing a blog post rather than a comment...
No problem, Eric, it's nice to hear your thoughts.I think the key issue is this: if a person is writing from a position of respect and they make the effort to learn what they can about their subject, then any mistakes they make in the process can be viewed as only that: mistakes. Writing is like any other craft, every effort is a learning process when you're open to improving, and not every reader is going to love your work even if it's "perfect" anyway; but when the subject is close to the heart of a cultural group I think it's a reasonable expectation that an author takes extra care, and that any errors be felt more strongly.
(To take a comparable example: when I've seen examples of Hollywood contorting the history of the UK in pursuit of telling a good story, I find it annoying - and I'm far from the most patriotic of Brits! A classic case would be the WWII submarine movie U-571, which stirred up enough of a stink in England that the makers added a note at the end to acknowledge that the story was based on the actions of the Royal Navy, rather than the US Navy as was presented in the film.)
Anyway, I suspect that a suggestion to "write The Other because diversity" is walking a fine line. Advice can be well-meant without necessarily being good. But the real point of caution would be to the people responding, that they handle any attempt with care.
Andrew wrote: "No problem, Eric, it's nice to hear your thoughts.I think the key issue is this: if a person is writing from a position of respect and they make the effort to learn what they can about their subj..."
I agree, a 'level gaze', as Shawl puts it, is a must. And research!!(Which is often neglected, as your example shows.)
I'm another one of those boring white[1] males, and I write fantasy. One of the blogs I follow was, a while back, decrying how 'Eurocentric' most published fantasy is, and urging the blog's followers (mostly other authors) to write from the viewpoint of other race and cultures[2]. Now, I think anyone who wants to do this, and whose story idea calls for it, should go for it! But the message here seemed more like, 'You wouldn't think of doing this on your own, and the stories you have in mind may not call for it, but you should do it anyway, because diversity.' This actually seemed like somewhat of a trap to me, since the risk of being accused of cultural appropriation is high, and the rewards--which, let's be honest, would probably be confined to other 'white' people saying "Wow, that's so culturally sensitive"--didn't seem to me to be worth it. I posted something to this effect, and many of the reactions in the links you posted above tend to confirm my opinion.
Anyway, I don't think I should have to apologize for writing 'Eurocentric' stories. It's my heritage. Why should I have the job of presenting someone else's culture? Why don't other people who are members of those cultures do that? Of course, there's a counter argument that 'those people are marginalized and don't get the chance to be published'. But the gods know I, personally, have no clout at all with the publishing industry--I've had to go the self-publishing route myself--so I have no guilt about that.
That said, I do have characters in my current series who are half Mexican and Indian, respectively. I know a little bit about those cultures, so hopefully they won't offend anyone. But they're there because it makes sense in the context of my story, not as some kind of box-ticking exercise for me and my (alas, few) readers.
[1] I actually don't like the term 'white'. Talk about treating a group of people as monolithic![a] And why is 'Black' or 'Native American' routinely capitalized but 'white' isn't? 'European' would be better, though possibly no more meaningful.
[2] It occurs to me that one could write a fantasy with a Basque or Albanian setting, which would certainly be a *way* under-represented milieu--much more so than, say, China or the Middle East. But I guess it would still be 'Eurocentric'. Damn.
[a] Although it's perfectly possible that some of my ancestors *were* monolithic, in the sense that they spent a lot of time putting up monoliths.