![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Retroactive ratings, Y/N/Abort/Retry/Fail?
I've been considering going back to the books I've reviewed and adding a 1-10 scale for race, gender, and GLBT issues to them. I certainly know that from this point on, any of my reviews will take those three things into consideration, and I'll be adding the rank there.
I really want to stay conscious not just of these things when I'm writing, but when I'm reading. As a reader, or more importantly, as a reader who buys books, my purchases and preferences do, in some small way, matter. And if I send out the message to publishers, editors, and writers that diversity sells, and that books which do a bad job do not, then we'll be seeing a lot more diversity in the literary world, which is a Good Thing^TM.
For instance, the fantasy book I'm reading now (Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch) has turned out to be a surprisingly fun read - but I'm well past a hundred pages in and there's only one female character who actually speaks, but has few lines and thus far, no significant part in the plot. Were she deleted from (at the very least) those 100 plus pages, nothing would change. Oh, and there was the one fish fighting gladiator woman who I read to be a woman of color who snuffed it within a couple of pages of being introduced. Which is sad, because the introduction of fish-fighting gladiator women made me really happy.
Actually, I could really go for a 700 page novel just about fish-fighting gladiator women. I feel this novel needs to be written.
I've always wondered if it would be appropriate, when someone trying to write an "other" (ie, a male trying to write a female, etc) complains about being in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation to answer them by saying, "Well, let's see. How many authors of [insert group] have you read and how many authors of [insert person's own group] have you read?"
One suspects that the ratio would be rather disappointed. One also suspects that those writers for whom the number is relatively encouraging have never felt the need to say such a thing.
One also, in a moment of sublime snark, would be tempted to type up a list of authors, essayists, and bloggers of [insert group that is being whined about as impossible to write and not write] and hand it to the person, saying (with a very stern and serious face), "There's a secret answer hidden in these books and essays and blogs. Read them very careful, several times over, and you too can learn the clandestine code for Getting It Right".
Of course, the fun is in timing how long it takes the person to realize that the answer isn't in the books, it is the books.
After all, if you were to do exactly that, then you would have taken the most vital step in this whole process, which is Shutting Your Giant Piehole And Listening. Which, let's face it, we all need to do more of.
I really want to stay conscious not just of these things when I'm writing, but when I'm reading. As a reader, or more importantly, as a reader who buys books, my purchases and preferences do, in some small way, matter. And if I send out the message to publishers, editors, and writers that diversity sells, and that books which do a bad job do not, then we'll be seeing a lot more diversity in the literary world, which is a Good Thing^TM.
For instance, the fantasy book I'm reading now (Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch) has turned out to be a surprisingly fun read - but I'm well past a hundred pages in and there's only one female character who actually speaks, but has few lines and thus far, no significant part in the plot. Were she deleted from (at the very least) those 100 plus pages, nothing would change. Oh, and there was the one fish fighting gladiator woman who I read to be a woman of color who snuffed it within a couple of pages of being introduced. Which is sad, because the introduction of fish-fighting gladiator women made me really happy.
Actually, I could really go for a 700 page novel just about fish-fighting gladiator women. I feel this novel needs to be written.
I've always wondered if it would be appropriate, when someone trying to write an "other" (ie, a male trying to write a female, etc) complains about being in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation to answer them by saying, "Well, let's see. How many authors of [insert group] have you read and how many authors of [insert person's own group] have you read?"
One suspects that the ratio would be rather disappointed. One also suspects that those writers for whom the number is relatively encouraging have never felt the need to say such a thing.
One also, in a moment of sublime snark, would be tempted to type up a list of authors, essayists, and bloggers of [insert group that is being whined about as impossible to write and not write] and hand it to the person, saying (with a very stern and serious face), "There's a secret answer hidden in these books and essays and blogs. Read them very careful, several times over, and you too can learn the clandestine code for Getting It Right".
Of course, the fun is in timing how long it takes the person to realize that the answer isn't in the books, it is the books.
After all, if you were to do exactly that, then you would have taken the most vital step in this whole process, which is Shutting Your Giant Piehole And Listening. Which, let's face it, we all need to do more of.
no subject
Almost. I won't write Blue people because I know their feelings on the subject. And, because I know how strongly one group feels, I am forced to wonder about other groups. That wondering, then, makes any attempt to write other groups fraught with anxiety, that will then color my portrayals. Further, each time I consider writing Purple, Orange, or Green people, I have to ask myself--not if I'll offend them by doing it wrong--but if I'll injure them by doing it at all. This goes beyond challenging one's comfort zone right into committing a willful disregard for their spirits, perhaps even (metaphorically) using their religious object as my paperweight because I simply can never know enough about their lives and their perspectives to see their religion as sacred.
Am I going to stop writing diversity? No, because I'm the kind of person who will predictably push any rule I'm given. Other people very well might, though, not because they're racists, but because they do respect the humanness in the other groups and because they don't trust themselves to know the line between offense and injury.
My entire post was for the point of saying that I think white writers have a responsibility to step out of their comfort zones and not to shy away because they're afraid of criticism and want to find a way to write something without having people point out any flaws in it.
*nods* And I was trying to point out how the "damned if you do" people might well have some good reasoning that isn't about their racism, as you've suggested elsewhere.
That (specifically) is hogwash to me, because if you're looking for a way to write characters of color that will never garner any criticism, you're doing it wrong.
Possibly. Though, generally speaking again, with the current cultural climate, being called a racist is just about the worst thing one person can say to another. Being afraid of garnering the label is quite reasonable, in my mind, because--much like sex offender, the other worst tag--the label can't be scrubbed off with all the soap and water in the world. A bad writer can get better. A person who can't plot to save their lives might be able to improve. Even boring books can find an appreciative audience. But racist sticks, never has any redeeming qualities, and, too often, can become the sole determining feature when discussing a person's real life character.
Not to mention that I, having lived in NYC, can't see how it's possible or even ethical to write a novel about this city, set in this city, without having lots of characters of color in my writing.
OK. That's you and your situation.
I don't live in NYC. I live in rural mid-America where finding a PoC is a challenge. So should I be punished as a racist if I don't include PoCs in my stories that are also set in rural mid-America?
More importantly, why should I (GPWP) be punished as a racist for the decisions made in choosing my characters at all? You (generically) don't know on what grounds that decision was made. It could very well have been a conscious choice to respect a group that is tired of seeing themselves misused.