Wisdom (not mine)
Hello, friends. This week, I want to share with you three of the best online articles I’ve recently read.
The first is “On White Fragility”, by André-Norton-award-winning novelist Justine Larbalestier. “I keep seeing white authors getting hung up on whether white people are allowed to write from points of view not our own. Spoiler: we’re allowed. No one is stopping us. Will doing so make YA more diverse? No, it won’t.” I have nothing to add, apart from the occasional fist-pump.
Second, my dear friend Sarah Sweet is not just a professional word nerd; she’s the Word Nerd. And she has some stern instructions for pedants run amok: “Nitpicking rather than engaging meaningfully with the substance of someone else’s statement is just plain rude, and people will think you’re rude, and they will be right.” So do us all a favour and don’t be a grammar troll. If you want to hear Sarah read it (at a pace that sounds normal enough to strangers but is in fact reality-bendingly slow to her friends), here’s a link to the podcast.
And finally, this came to my attention via the delightful Jamie Tan. I spent SO MANY YEARS politely answering inappropriate questions because I thought I owed others my best manners, even when others were deeply rude and creepy to me. I figured it out, eventually. But I wish I’d read this when I was twelve.
So… that was pretty didactic. In the spirit of fairness, do you have any suggested reading or life lessons for me this week?
