(no subject)

[layla]

I'm not getting much writing done today; I'm doing more reading about it ...

There's a current series of posts going 'round on the topic of cultural appropriation (something I think about a lot in regards to my own often-flawed attempts to write multicultural worlds). It begins here with Elizabeth Bear aka matociquala's post on writing the "other" in speculative fiction. Then there is an open letter to Elizabeth Bear at Seeking Avalon, pointing out a problematic character in one of Bear's novels as symptomatic of the larger problem of poor representation of characters of color in SF. And, spawned off a comment thread in Bear's LJ, there is I Didn't Dream of Dragons by deepad which is, really, one of the best posts on the pain and harm of cultural appropriation and lack of representation in mainstream Western fiction that I've read. Then Elizabeth Bear responds to the "open letter" post in a way that is more open-minded than defensive, though that doesn't stop (white) people from getting defensive all over her comments. And shewhohashope has an insightful post about that defensive response. (These posts, and the comments to them, have a few more links as well.)

I think deepad's post resonates for me in particular because it strikes to the heart of why I spend so much time thinking about this, and reading about it, and trying to fix the places where I've messed up and to mess up less on each project I try. Because when you don't do that -- when you write about universes peopled exclusively by white straight men, when you play at "diversity" by sticking a few token and stereotypical characters into the mix, when you ignore readers who tell you "Hey, you screwed up here" -- you hurt people. And I don't want to do that.

In a broader sense, of course, I write what is interesting to me. I want to write about a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, sexually diverse future because it's a fascinating place and because it's the way I think things are going to be; because the people I know are not a cultural, religious, ethnic, sexual-orientation monolith and I want to write about that, too. And I know that I haven't done the best job (to say the least) of depicting the diverse world I envision; in "Raven's Children", especially, I know that I messed up in some pretty fundamental ways, and Kismet is not without its share of problems as well. But I'm trying to fix my problems, and do better, because I want to write my escapist fantasies without having them be a poke in the eye to anyone else.

Comments

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely spot-on with #1 and #2; the problem is, reading through these discussions, I keep feeling like a lot of white writers and readers quit before they get that far. You get stuff like this (http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1544999.html?thread=30811175#t30811175) -- "So, all storytellers should shut up because they can never tell everyone's story for them, correctly and exactly as that person would tell it, if they could? And we shouldn't even try, because we'll only Get It Wrong?" and "I'm a white male, and this suggests that I'm not allowed to write anything but white males." There is so much of that in discussions of that sort. In a way, I can sympathize because when I first started really trying to learn about this stuff, that was more or less how I reacted right off the bat -- it's too hard, I can't do it right, I'm going to piss off people no matter what I do. Luckily, for the most part, I was able to keep my mouth shut until I started figuring out that the important thing is to do the best I can -- and people do respond well to that. I think the way most people are responding to Elizabeth Bear in this particular round of debate demonstrates that amply; she's generally tried hard, and even though she's messed up sometimes, she's being given a lot of credit just for trying. I can't have too much sympathy for people who won't even step up to the starting line for fear of what might happen to them in the twelfth lap.

I guess what I realized is that, no matter what you write, you're putting your personal politics into it one way or another. If you choose to write about a future society populated by Straight White Males (TM) then that is a political choice just as much as writing about a couple of black lesbians in space. Ducking the issue -- out of some anticipated fear of being criticized by PoC bloggers (oh noes!) or for any other reason -- is still making a statement and people are going to criticize you for it and you're going to deserve it. You are absolutely right that you can't please everybody, but there's a big difference between not even trying, and trying and getting it wrong and getting back up again after you get it wrong. I think something that gets lost on the white-person side of these discussions is that white writers tend to get a lot of credit for doing the latter, as Bear does -- especially when they prove themselves willing to keep engaging after having their mistakes pointed out, to keep trying to figure out how to fix what they did wrong.

And while you are absolutely right that not all advice is created equal, if Jim-Bob the Engineer tells me, "Hey, you got some cracks in your foundation here", I think it's in my best interests to listen to him rather than flying off the handle at the implication that my foundation is anything less than perfect. *g*