Next verse, same as the first.
Linkspam on the fail surrounding Patricia Wrede's "Thirteenth Child", an alternate fantasy pioneer history of the Americas where Native peoples never existed. From the Tor review, "This is an alternate version of our world which is full of magic, and where America (“Columbia”) was discovered empty of people but full of dangerous animals, many of them magical."
And here we go again.
Consider this an open letter to all those who, once again, think that writers are free to write any story they want in any way they want, with no regard to or recognition of the larger contexts in which those stories exist. So sure, you can write about anything you want. No one can stop you. But if you continue to demand that not only you can write want you want, but that everyone is required to treat it as a value-neutral text driven only by your (good or unexamined) intentions, then you're at best naïve of the privilege you have, or at worst you actively don't care and your way is the right of way, so get out of your way.
Either way, you're wrong. Wong wrong wrong.
Nothing we write about exists in a vacuum. Nothing. You can't divorce a story or an idea from its deeply layered and intricate context, repackage it to suit your needs, and send it off expecting that the people who are aware of that context will pick it up and say, "Hey! Nifty!" Because for many people, that context you just disregarded as inconvenient or uninteresting or just plain not useful to your purposes? IS THEIR LIFE. It's their history, their pain, their story. And you've just wiped it away as an afterthought, cleaning a slate filled with history and love and pain and anger and hard questions and even harder answers, to make it neat and pretty and empty for you to write your own story.
And the worst part? You're hardly the first person to do that.
And yet, every time this comes around, people react as if it is the first time. They react as if there is not also a history, a deeply layered and intricate context to that erasure, and they're shocked, shocked I tell you when that's pointed out.
(How many times have we as women, as white women, railed against exactly that? The way history has disappeared our contributions, our roles, our very lives? And why do we think it's our right to turn around and do it to others?)
So sure, write whatever you want. Claim that as your right. But don't expect that you get to do it for free. Because it's costing someone somewhere, and if the only price you pay is getting called out on your privilege and your "good" intentions, then you're getting off damn cheap.
And here we go again.
Consider this an open letter to all those who, once again, think that writers are free to write any story they want in any way they want, with no regard to or recognition of the larger contexts in which those stories exist. So sure, you can write about anything you want. No one can stop you. But if you continue to demand that not only you can write want you want, but that everyone is required to treat it as a value-neutral text driven only by your (good or unexamined) intentions, then you're at best naïve of the privilege you have, or at worst you actively don't care and your way is the right of way, so get out of your way.
Either way, you're wrong. Wong wrong wrong.
Nothing we write about exists in a vacuum. Nothing. You can't divorce a story or an idea from its deeply layered and intricate context, repackage it to suit your needs, and send it off expecting that the people who are aware of that context will pick it up and say, "Hey! Nifty!" Because for many people, that context you just disregarded as inconvenient or uninteresting or just plain not useful to your purposes? IS THEIR LIFE. It's their history, their pain, their story. And you've just wiped it away as an afterthought, cleaning a slate filled with history and love and pain and anger and hard questions and even harder answers, to make it neat and pretty and empty for you to write your own story.
And the worst part? You're hardly the first person to do that.
And yet, every time this comes around, people react as if it is the first time. They react as if there is not also a history, a deeply layered and intricate context to that erasure, and they're shocked, shocked I tell you when that's pointed out.
(How many times have we as women, as white women, railed against exactly that? The way history has disappeared our contributions, our roles, our very lives? And why do we think it's our right to turn around and do it to others?)
So sure, write whatever you want. Claim that as your right. But don't expect that you get to do it for free. Because it's costing someone somewhere, and if the only price you pay is getting called out on your privilege and your "good" intentions, then you're getting off damn cheap.