Some thoughts on writing outside my experience

[brown_betty]

Recently, and not so recently, I've come across a couple of stories, or had them pointed out to me, within greater fandom, where the history or culture of marginalized groups was employed to make a story more exotic or interesting, with the result the story was offensive

Comments

[offdutydane]

This reminded me about something Anne Rice had to say about writing about what you know :

Maya in Seattle asks will I ever have vampires of different races in my books. What limits me in terms of race is what I know. I can go only so far in my genuine understanding of other races. Fro [sic] example, regarding the Japanese, though I have tremendous respect for the culture and the art, I don't know enough about the Japanese heart and soul to create a Japanese character of depth in my work.

Taken from here.

I really wish I could bring this discussion up in my GRM 491 class about minority groups in Germany, because our current topic is exoticism, but I have a feeling no one wants to hear about slashy fanfic ( okay, one guy might, but the rest ... ), even if it is relevant.

[brown_betty]

Huh. I'm-- really uncomfortable with Rice's response. The way she discusses the main difference between herself and a Japanese person as being not a matter of culture and art, but of "heart and soul" seems to argue that there's some sort of essential difference (not situated in culture!) Maybe I'm reading too much into this short snippet, though.

[shininghalf]

I also think, like, other peoples are marginalised by being shut out of fiction, and if writers can just say "oh, I don't understand them well enough to write about them," then that effectively shuts them out of fiction again while the writer washes their hands of it. As a general principle, that seems like an abuse of privelege, too, I think (speaking as a priveleged white middle-class person).

[offdutydane]

You've definitely got a point. She does back entirely away from it and for her it is an all-or-nothing type thing - either you're born into it (culture) and understand it or you're not and it's a totally undecipherable mystery. Which is not true. Yeah, you can't understand a whole people and their history in five minutes from reading a wikipedia article, but it's not impossible. So yeah, she does give a sense of throwing her hands up and saying "oh well, moving on." From what I understand she spent years researching/travelling for her book about the life of Jesus Christ ( a culture outside of her own! ), which she could have easily done had she wanted to write about Japanese vampires. But she did not

[cryptoxin]

(here via rydra_wong)

This is a great list! In thinking about the Cambodia story, I'd expand on your #5 for stories about characters from a dominant culture set in other cultures:

Do the characters from other cultures have their own individual voices in the story? Are they treated as individuals, or as generic/homogeneous representatives of their culture? How would the story read differently if it were told from their point of view? Does the story imply that the assumptions of the POV characters are accurate and should be taken at face value ("what a happy, simple people!") or does it complicate those assumptions and suggest ways that they might reflect cultural biases and blind-spots?

[vee_fic]

OMG GRR and various other asscapped epithets. In trying to do my "educate people willing to learn" duty I had to read the verdommt story in question, and I about bit my tongue off with the 'wow, these people love being poor!' condescenscion.

Ohhhhh the dope-slapping I would like to do.

Ahem. brown_betty, this is very helpful and concise, thank you. I was pointed to this from heyschasm's comments, and I'm glad to see it.

[brown_betty]

This is a good point. I was just thinking of M. M. Kaye's India epics, which exoticism India a fair bit, although I don't think the attitude of the protagonists is presented as entirely unproblematic, I'm not sure the author meant to problemetize either.

[brown_betty]

er, that's supposed to say "exoticize" not "exoticism." My spellchecker was being "helpful"

[executrix]

The risk of having a bunch of Satedans picket one's office is, of course, vanishingly small, but I think it matters whether the culture or history is canon (e.g., an SGA writer who never mentions Ronon or Teyla probably has Issues), compatible with canon (e.g., UNCLE regularly sent its agents to many countries), or completely tacked on.

And I know it wouldn't tell us all that much about Thailand, but I'm tempted by the idea of how Bayliss and Falsone would react if they got sent to Thailand to interview some witnesses and chase a suspect...

[brown_betty]

Or if the culture in question is a thinly disguised version of a real culture; I think that needs to be factored in, too.

[brown_betty]

Yes, and I think sometimes SFnal authors create cultural analogues as a way to escape the baggage of human history, but unless you're writing for aliens who haven't come into contact with earth (WHICH WOULD CERTAINLY EXPLAIN A FEW AUTHORS) you can't really do that.

[cofax7]

This is a great post; thank you for making it.

I'm reminded of Mely's comments on the whole issue, as well, which comes down to: there is no gold star. You're never off the hook for being respectful, you should always be questioning whether you're doing right by your readers and your characters.

[brown_betty]

I was just recently reading your story, "Joshua Tree" (and didn't leave feedback because I'm a bad fangirl) and thinking that although nearly everything in that story was strange to me, nothing was "exotic." I think perhaps exotic is an optical illusion produced by not seeing humans as people.

[cofax7]

::flails::

Thank you for saying that. I spent the entire year I wrote that story on tenterhooks: my personal working title was "the Cultural Appropriation Casefile of Doom", given that both the content and the writing were, in a sense, appropriative.

So it means a lot to hear that it worked for someone, and didn't seem exoticizing or exploitative.

[lenadances]

This is the best response I've seen to this. (I would offer to nibble on your tasty brains, but it seems rather presumptuous on short acquaintance.) I'm going to bookmark this and link it elsewhere the next time I don't trust myself for a good answer on this subject (which is, pretty much, every time). If that's okay. Is that okay?

[brown_betty]

Thank you! Yes, you may certainly link; I would be flattered.