"Telling Better Stories"

[starfishstar]

Well, I seem to have found my cause in life...or at least my latest one!

As you all know, I think about books and writing a lot (what with having been a massive book-lover all my life – not to mention now having a job in a library!)

I also think about issues of diversity/representation/racism/sexism/equality-of-all-kinds a lot (what with, you know, existing as a human being in this particular world of ours).

I'd already been thinking about diversity in my reading; after stereolightning took me to an panel discussion by the amazing folks at We Need Diverse Books (check them out, check them out, check them out!) I started thinking more about diversity in my writing, too. (That timely increase in awareness on my part is why the werewolf pack in "Raise Your Lantern High" includes characters from a wide variety of backgrounds, rather than just the same old generic-nonspecified-white-people-by-default that so much American/European writing unfortunately defaults to.)

As I've been reading book-buying catalogues for work (yes...my job is indeed awesome!) I've actually been pretty pleased/relieved to see that that state of the publishing industry seems to be doing pretty okay at this, at putting out books that represent a wide variety of characters and a wide variety of authors and a wide variety of backgrounds. That's really heartening! Obviously, this is one of those things where you can always be improving and striving to do better – and it benefits everybody when you do! – but the "powers that be" in publishing (at least for children's books and YA) do seem to have gotten the message about the crucial importance of all kids getting to see characters like them in the books they read, and that's huge.

Anyway, this month's Booklist catalogue featured an interview with three different authors on matters of "diverse books" – especially in the realm of writing YA fantasy. The whole thing's worth a read – it's not long – but here were a couple of my favorite bits:


Booklist: You all approach the genre in different ways, but it becomes a vehicle for, among other things, discussing a variety of multicultural issues. So why fantasy?

Daniel José Older (author of "Shadowshaper"): [...] Fantasy offers unique ways to think about race, power, and culture, because with fantasy we have a chance to dream up new rules, new arrangements, new forms of power, and also complicate and dramatize existing ones. I think it's important to allow literature to multitask. Our characters can confront racist microaggressions or police brutality and fight off evil zombie dudes, and they should, because one doesn't cancel out the other, and there's a truth in there that's important to acknowledge.

[me, starfishstar: I love this, because yes, not every book with a person of color character needs to be an "Issue Book." We also need books about characters who happen to be people of color, and also happen to do awesome, interesting things! And of course his point about fantasy being an ideal place to explore questions of race, power and culture makes me think of JKR, and how Harry Potter is a parable for bigotry and tolerance in the world. Sci fi and fantasy have long been the go-to places for exploring these sorts of questions.]


Booklist: It's been widely acknowledged that publishing needs more diversity, both in terms of characters and authors. At the same time, many writers are concerned about writing about cultures and experiences that aren't theirs. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Cynthia Letitch Smith (author of "Feral Pride"): I refuse to tell a teen that someone who, like them, is, say, Chinese American or Jewish or gay or living with OCD could not appear in my fictional worlds because I’m not a strong-enough writer to pull it off. That’s a fear-driven cop-out. At the same time, I’m not so overconfident that I’d plunge in before I’m ready. I respect that certain stories and insights will arise only through lived experience, and I’ll gladly step aside and signal boost those. It’s not an either-or debate.

Sabaa Tahir (author of "An Ember in the Ashes"): [...] One of the saddest things I have ever heard is that authors are too frightened to write diverse characters for fear of getting it “wrong.” Because when authors say that, they are telling every single kid who is underrepresented in books (and that’s a lot of kids) that their lives, experiences, and stories are not worth learning about and listening to. And that’s just shameful. Our readers deserve more effort and courage from us than that.


The whole interview is here: "Telling Better Stories: Writing Diverse YA Fantasy"


All of this makes me so happy to be a person thinking about books and writing at this particular moment in time! Hmmm, maybe I should indeed start thinking seriously about getting a library science degree. Specifically in children's literature, of course! :-)

Comments

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Interesting thoughts!

I find that some YA or young readers' books that represent diverse characters -- which is important, of course -- do it in a heavy-handed way (though of course right now I can't think of any actual specific examples). And then there are some that manage to strike a balance, where it becomes clear that some of the characters aren't white, but it's done in a way that feels more natural than stiff or forced.

One really interesting example of this is Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, an early book by EL Koningsburg. You don't actually find out in the text until about halfway through that Jennifer and her family are African-American -- although the illustrations do reflect this. And that book is from the late 1960s.

One of the saddest things I have ever heard is that authors are too frightened to write diverse characters for fear of getting it “wrong.”

Hmmm. But nowadays there is such a backlash against cultural appropriation, and people "presuming" to speak for minority groups that they don't represent -- I wouldn't be at all surprised if a certain segment of the internet got all up in arms if, say, a straight white writer dared to write from the perspective of a more diverse character.

[starfishstar]

I find that some YA or young readers' books that represent diverse characters -- which is important, of course -- do it in a heavy-handed way

That's exactly what's got me so excited about the state of YA publishing right now, because it seems like we've finally moved past that "awkward tokenism" stage to actual, diverse representation. A lot of things about the publishing industry are in dire straits, but this is a thing that seems to be becoming pretty awesome!

But nowadays there is such a backlash against cultural appropriation, and people "presuming" to speak for minority groups that they don't represent -- I wouldn't be at all surprised if a certain segment of the internet got all up in arms if, say, a straight white writer dared to write from the perspective of a more diverse character.

Yeah, that's exactly the issue they were addressing! There's a lot more that I cut here for length (but can be read in the interview as a whole) but basically all three authors seemed to be saying some version of:
1. some stories really can only be told by the people who have lived through that particular experience, and we should step aside and let them tell their own story (and signal boost their work)
2. but also that's not an excuse for anyone to give up on even trying to write better, more diverse stories! If I'm willing to put in the work to imagine myself into the shoes of a character who's male, or decades older/younger than me, or, say, a werewolf(!), what exactly is my excuse for not applying that same empathy/imagination/research on all fronts?

It definitely is a very complicated and intricate issue, and for sure whatever you do someone somewhere is going to disapprove of it (like anything in life...) but I particularly liked that quote above because I myself have been guilty for a long time (and in fact mostly still am) of doing exactly that, saying, "I couldn't possibly get it right so I won't even try." So to me it's really heartening to hear authors who are themselves people of color saying, No, don't get scared and hide; let's all try to tell more diverse stories – it doesn't have to be an either/or proposition.

(Sorry for going on and on... This is just something that's got me so excited at the moment! Along with all kinds of other fascinating questions about YA writing/publishing. I'm turning into such a library nerd...)

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

(Here via Home Page)

When I first began hearing the term "reading diversely", I assumed it meant what the word has always meant: reading a wide variety of genres.

Then little bit little, I learned people were talking about "anything but white", and especially white, heterosexual males!

There were people who actually kept track of how many books they were reading by white authors (again, ESPECIALLY white/male/heterosexual) as compared to other.

I cannot imagine being that fixated on something so silly! A quick glance at my bookshelves right now and I couldn't tell you what color skin or even the author of most of those authors are! Who even THINKS like that? A book is either well written or it isn't. It interests you, or it doesn't. That's it.

In other words, it's nothing but racism, sexism and hatred for heterosexuals.

The funny part is when I brought this up on the Book Riot website, they banned me - no warning, nothing.

So much for "diversity" in opinions.

It's the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen. But that's today's insane culture for you. Words mean the exact opposite of what they have always meant.

Tolerance now means "agreeing with/accepting everything." Diversity means "thinking exactly one way."

Anything/anyone that deviates from this will be silenced, shut down and when possible, destroyed.

[starfishstar]

I'm not sure how you found your way to me or why you decided this was the place to offload your feelings on this topic; if you're actually interested in engaging in dialogue and hearing multiple perspectives, I can try to do that with you, but if you only want a place to expound on your views without also hearing other ones then, yup, I'm probably also going to have to end up deleting/blocking you. I'm letting your comment stand for now in the good-faith hope that it really is a request for dialogue and not just trolling.

But I have to say, if you read this particular joyful, book-loving post by someone who joyfully reads many, many books by ALL people (including, yes, straight white men!) then I do think you have entirely missed the point of this post, or of anything I write about here. For me personally, the striving to read diversely is not about reading "anything but white," it's about reading "everybody possible, including both the white men who have gotten so much of the say about things for most of our history, plus everyone else who is now finally getting to also have a say." I'm not sure how that qualifies as "being that fixated on something so silly." You ask, "Who thinks like that?" People who want to make sure we all get a say think like that.

"Tolerance" isn't and shouldn't be "agreeing with everything" but it definitely is "accepting that other people are different from me." "Diversity" doesn't mean "thinking exactly one way" but (in my individual opinion) it absolutely does mean "noticing that one way of thinking has gotten most of the airtime for a long time, and thus making an extra effort to let more ways of thinking get airtime." It can feel subtractive (less airtime for the people who used to get to have all of it!) but it's truly not (it's more airtime, because now we're including more people!)

Those are my opinions; I understand that you have different ones. If you want to engage and seek common ground despite differences, I'm open to it. But if you just want to repeat that you think I'm wrong, I'm not interested.

If you want to have a look around my journal and come back with an interest in having a mutual conversation, I will try to meet you there.