Alma Alexander: Writing the Other

Jul 05, 2012 09:30


Alma Alexander ( Twitter, LJ) is a Pacific Northwest novelist, short story writer, and anthologist. Her books include “The Secrets of Jin Shei”, “Embers of Heaven”, “The Hidden Queen”, “Changer of Days”, the YA Worldweavers series, and “2012: Midnight at Spanish Gardens”; short stories have appeared in a number of recent anthologies, and “River”, ( Read more... )

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Comments 15

quirkstreet July 5 2012, 13:53:57 UTC
Thanks for posting this. It's well thought out and well stated, and makes me interested in Alma Alexander's work.

There's a long conversation about Connie Willis that one could have but it's possible that's already happened here in your blog, and I don't want to cause thread drift. Suffice to say, I'll be on the lookout for Alexander's books.

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la_marquise_de_ July 5 2012, 14:20:57 UTC
You are very welcome to come and discuss Willis on my blog post, if you wish: I'm interested in how others perceived those books, because my reaction was very narrow and very personal, and I am well aware that there are many more, complex ways of reading her.
The post is public, and I'd be happy to revisit it.
Kari

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quirkstreet July 5 2012, 14:37:06 UTC
Looking at the number of comments and the insightfulness thereof, it may take me a while to formulate a contribution that isn't too 'off-the-cuff'. But I'll read through and see if I can add something of value. Thanks!

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la_marquise_de_ July 5 2012, 15:12:24 UTC
You are very welcome :-)

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fadethecat July 5 2012, 14:57:11 UTC
I do a lot of worrying about cultural appropriation. It's damn hard to get things right, despite all the effort in the world. And after reading this post, I'm actually a lot more interested in hearing about examples of how to respond usefully when informed Mistakes Were Made. I mean... I am glad that stuff was done well? But I'm not really sure what to do with an essay that explains the high difficulty levels and then only gives examples of perfect success.

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rachelmanija July 5 2012, 16:34:51 UTC
I agree.

I'm also interested in the issues that arise when you are writing, more or less, from your own experience/culture... but your own experience isn't everyone's experience, and so there is still a high likelihood of getting it "wrong" in the sense of not representing the experiences of others from similar backgrounds, and/or not presenting the experience which others would like to see presented.

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fadethecat July 5 2012, 16:37:25 UTC
This interests me as well! I grew up in a little subcultural enclave within a much larger culture that wasn't mine, and so I tend to get...flustered, really, when told I should write about my experience, because writing about my actual experience is likely to come across as appropriative. It's sort of the ex-pat problem, for me; what do you do when your history is hugely defined by a culture you don't have a real claim on?

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rachelmanija July 6 2012, 20:05:05 UTC
That, of course, is my own experience as well ( ... )

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lauowolf July 5 2012, 19:01:09 UTC
I have to say I'm a little uncomfortable by having Sperring take what seems to me a clearly tongue-in-cheek comment from Willis, and using it to turn her, of all people, into a straw man target as an example of lack of sensitivity and a general loose treatment of the historical period ( ... )

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green_knight July 5 2012, 20:21:25 UTC
(Not Kari, just a historian.)

don't think anyone could have handled the sense of danger and fear of the Blitz with as much attention to historical accuracy and respect for those who lived through it as did Willis.

I think you're setting the bar very, very low. You can understand how historians work and think without making it your life's passion; Willis' portrayal did not strike me as realistic at all.

to experience for themselves the human suffering the Blitz caused and the bravery it called forth

How is that not treating history as a themepark? If you can stop suffering and go home, it's not real.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke.

It's a joke if you have privilege. For the people at the opposite end of suffering, the casual use of words like 'deathmarch' or 'Nazi' or 'rape' isn't funny at all. And if you feel that your right to make offensive jokes trumps other people's pain, well... you might reconsider that stance.

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lauowolf July 5 2012, 20:31:09 UTC
Does Willis make any such offensive jokes about Nazi's or death marches?
If so, I missed them.
But most of the academics I know I have heard at some point referring to their subject matters in terms similar to Willis's quoted remarks.

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la_marquise_de_ July 5 2012, 21:42:20 UTC
Well, if you go and read my full post and all the discussion, you will see what I said, and that what I was actually commenting on was an article she had written about the books. And, as I also said, I have a direct connexion to the Blitz, which of course played into how I felt about it ( ... )

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tylik July 5 2012, 21:11:04 UTC
It interests me that these things are coming up regarding Blackout and All Clear - because Firewatch and the Doomsday Book, placed in the same world, were both so much focused on the idea that however abstract the study of history might seem to be, we are talking about people, every bit as real as you and me, mattering as much as we do ( ... )

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