Val Prozorova's Blog, page 8

FactualFacts.com

Another post? A day after another publication announcement?

I've been having a very good time in London, and it seems the UK likes me back! I have now been published as a freelancer in the Factual Facts blog. Currently I am in the language department and my first order of business is delving into the fun and whacky world of phobias.

You can find my first article here, and keep a watchful eye on more as they come!

I am very excited to be part of this - freelancing is turning out to be one of the best decisions I ever made, as a step closer to my future as a writer.

- V

Lucky - Crab Fat Magazine

I am so delighted, and so proud, to have a story in the October issue of Crab Fat Magazine.

The story is called Lucky, and was the first of my latest trend with short stories to be written in second person. It is twisting and odd, a little bit cyborg, a little bit android, a little bit violent, a little bit introspective.

I would love to hear your opinions on it!

And a huge, HUGE thank you to Crab Fat for being the amazing magazine they are. Give all of their entries a look, and definitely take the time to enjoy October's issue. It is well worth it.

- V

Over The Highlands And Into The Moors In A Blue Mercedes

Roadtrips have a habit of getting my inspiration up to incredible levels, while at the same time depleting my time to near-nothing to put that inspiration to use. A two-edged sword, to be sure, but a strangely welcome one.

I have been very lucky on this trip to not only get to meet brilliant people and see absolutely awe-inspiring places, but also to read amazing new books. One in particular that I have to mention is Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter.

I devoured this book on the London-bound train from Bristol, and spent the time I had left thinking of nothing else. To say it is an accessible book would be false; it isn't for everyone. In fact, there are few books that I have read that follow this sort of free form style. And just as those have stuck with me from the moment I opened them to the first page, so this one joins their ranks.

What inspires me most, seeing work like this published, is knowing that some of my friends who are artists and authors, and who write in this style, will find their work not only welcomed by in demand, within a year or so at the very most.

The depth of metaphor and the power of the harsh words is something that adds more and more weight as the story progresses, and I found myself completely enthralled by voices used within: the Dad, the Boys and Crow. I think the Crow watching over me was flexing his wings every so often, tempted to join me in the read. But it's not his time yet, and we both know that.

I would recommend it for anyone looking for a strange and wonderful piece. It is cathartic and warming, it is harrowing and a cool reminder of mortality in every sense of that word. It's a beautiful book, and like most beautiful works of art, not easy.

London Calling - A Journey of Verbosity and Opinion

After sleepless days, four layovers and far too many children screaming on my flights, I arrived in London at the rather unholy hour of 6AM today.

Now, at 5 past midnight, I can't seem to get my brain to shut down. However, before I force myself into what will inevitably be welcome and quick-to-come dreamless oblivion, I had to comment on the strange juxtaposition of the transport system in the great city.

Namely: how things that appear to be far to walk to, are close, and how stations that appear close together are far apart.

I'm almost certain that the city lives in some sort of time warp, it feels as much in time as it does out of it. Perhaps if I ever watch Dr. Who a lot more things will make sense, who knows. All I know now, and all my exhausted mind can gather thusly, is that it takes hours to get to certain stations, not minutes, and that planning a journey in advance should be planned well in advance, for fear of missing one's plans due to the strangely elongated underground over a strangely shortened overground.

I need to reread Neverwhere, I think, a lot more makes sense suddenly.

Today I got to visit a literary hero of mine, Sherlock Holmes, and not only visit, but partake in a deductive hunt for over an hour in the Victorian streets at Madam Tussauds. Quite the challenge, and well worth braving the underground for the first time for - thankfully having the paranoid habits that I picked up from certain people to be everywhere not only early, but early for the early time initially planned for oneself.

I highly recommend this be a habit people pick up if they ever end up in this extraordinary city.

Tomorrow I will be up bright and early to head in to King's Cross and see the beauty of the station before it fills up with people (thankfully, though transport doesn't run late here, as it doesn't in NZ, it runs incredibly early), and then I am off to Bristol for a day of adventure!

More as it happens, feel free to leave comments, make suggestions, and tell me about the places you've visited in the UK (or would like to visit) so I can see if I can squeeze them into my itinerary!

Stay awesome,

V

Cultural Appropriation In Works of Fiction

A good friend of mine - also a writer - linked me to this masterpiece of an article this morning and I just had to share.

"Lionel Shriver's full speech: 'I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad'"

I must admit, I spent a good portion of this article - or speech, I suppose - cringing as much as smirking knowingly. It's strange how we can at once be activists for a certain type of political correctness and find other types so entirely ridiculous.

Personally, I feel that I grow as a person when I find new characters to include in my work. I enjoy finding people with new sexualities, new experiences, new problems, new talents, new solutions... I think it's a way to spread awareness, as well as experience something new myself as someone who is NOT that sexuality, who has NOT had those experiences and problems or talents, et cetera.

In truth, when I find characters like myself in books, I don't feel "used" or "stereotyped", I feel like I'm included.

To be fair, there is a very grey area in regards to creative work - especially between those who create the work and those within it - and while I find some points made in the above link are ones I agree with, others I find myself scoffing at. Possibly because I didn't grow up in America, and New Zealand - thankfully - hasn't such a cruel history with racism as the larger continent does.

That said.

I never felt that Arthur Golden, for instance, stereotyped Japanese women in Memoirs of Geisha, being, himself, a white male. I thought it was a well-researched and interesting book that I devoured as a teenager; it didn't once occur to me to consider his work as "appropriation".

Again, it's possible I am speaking from the high pedestal of white privilege, but even so, most work that is created by artists and writers and dancers and musicians is meant for a wide audience - so wouldn't it make sense that those creating are of a wide supply of races and sexualities and genders?

I agree entirely that there is a hugely unfair gap in any industry, between people of colour and people not of colour. More than just in pay. There SHOULD be more actors of colour recognized for their work, and directors and the editorial and musical teams associated with the films by proxy, of course. There SHOULD be more writers of colour recognized for their incredible work. There SHOULD be more fairness, and possibly, one day, there will be.

But that being said, I don't at all agree with ignoring, or pushing aside those people who are not of colour, or who are cis het, or rich, because they just happen to be those things. There are many incredible works by people who are - in current stereotyped internet culture - "due to check their privilege", and those works shouldn't suffer because at this moment in time the internet has a fad for supporting some people and not others.

We are, inadvertently, creating yet another "us and them" divide; not solving a problem, but covering one up with another.

Anyway.

I could go on for far too long, and I truly shouldn't. Too long listening to interesting podcasts and researching cultures that aren't my own would have me making this into a 4,000 university assignment.

I'm not sure about other writers - and I can only speak for myself, in the end, regardless of anything - but I have never felt backlash in regards to approaching a lifestyle or method of expression that is opposite or merely different from my own. I have had people praise me for taking the time to see their point of view, to understand that although I may not fit into this category of people or experiences, I have tried to see something from their perspective, and put it out into mainstream media for others to see, too.

If that's me using my white privilege for good, then I suppose that's all I can do with it, really. I hope I get to for a good long while more, alongside people who can tell their own stories proudly and have them heard.

- V

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V.