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I #SupportWNDB – The Series: THE REAL WORLD IS A DIVERSE PLACE

Diversity in Books

By T.S. Dann

Oscar Wilde said ��Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.�� I don��t know about that. I think art is more informed by the real world and created as an expression of experience. That however, is just my humbly arrogant opinion.

Which leads into the blood and guts of this essay: Why Do We Need Diversity in Books?

Well quite simply put, because the real world is a diverse place. You��re going to encounter people different from yourself. Locales where people of only one type exist and interact on a daily basis are becoming few and far between with the lines of communication and travel now opened. How many of you go a day without seeing a white person, black person, hispanic person, so on and so forth? Probably not many. ��People from all over the damn place have settled all over the damn place. Therefore, in our daily interactions, we will most likely interact with people from different groups.

I��m from Atlanta. As far as I can remember (the 80��S) it��s always been a place full of different people. I��ve interacted with all of them. In the best part of Atlanta (DeKalb County) this holds especially true.�� If you��re local, you��ll probably laugh at that. If you��ve never been here for the Buford Hwy experience, well then come on.

Anyway, point being, you��re likely going to interact with people from all different races, creeds, ethnicities, sky daddy devotions, affiliations, etc on a daily basis. This will take you out of your comfort zone and knowledge base in some cases. I remember as a police officer, trying to communicate with people who spoke different languages. Oftentimes, this resulted in a call to the Language Line for a translator��s assistance. It wasn��t necessarily an easy process, but necessary. We were occupying the same space and had to have some kind of understanding.

So how does this translate to literature? As I said, in reality, people of all sorts exist. To create a realistic world in books, you need different kinds of people. Unless your book contains a very limited location and few interactions, it will not resemble the real world.

Take a shameless plug for my book, Nightmarescape. The description begins ��The Nightmarescape is a realm constituted of negative psychic energy. It reaches out to damaged souls through their dreams and pulls them in after death.�� Now in the story, this realm has been around since the dawn of time itself. Yeah��over the couple hundred thousand years or so we��ve been conscious, a lot of motherfuckers have ended up there. In addition to being a diverse place, the real world is also a violent and disgusting one. Everyone gets hurt no matter their background. That fact being known, yes the Nightmarescape has become an insanely diverse place over the millennia.

Also as in real life, some play well with others and some don��t. Conflict is eternal�� between groups of all stripes. Some clique up based on a shared similarity (ethnic, religious, racial, etc), but some are more amorphous and welcoming (Archaic Front for example, which includes soldiers from all over time). Domination, hatred, animosity, and greed are all real things that are reflected in these written conflicts. Yeah��if I had a world that supposedly encompassed people from all over time and it only featured one group, that would not be very realistic would it? It would be like saying that only one type of people ever existed. Therefore, I need people of all kinds spilling their blood in mutually assured destruction! This is a reflection of our human history as much as it is our present.

That being said, I also believe that diversity has become somewhat of a pigeonholed concept based on appearances. This is not realistic. Someone can be lumped into a larger category such as white or black, but even within these classifications, there are wide differentiations. It does a disservice to acknowledge the concept of diversity without looking into the fact that these classifications encompass many different cultures and ethnicities. You can take a white American and a rural Irish farmer. Put the two side by side and there will be deep cultural differences. They will most likely look different too based on the bloodlines that have gone into making up their genes. I prefer not to overgeneralize my characters into stereotypes. Archetypes can be useful ways of explaining an overall appearance or demeanor, but humans have personalities beyond their appearances. A look is good, but there is always a personality behind it.

�� And there it is ladies n jerks. Why do we need diverse books? Cus we live in a diverse world. Go play in reality and you��ll see it. As always: If you hate it, perfect. Fuck off.

Please consider assisting our efforts to diversify everyone��s bookshelf by donating to We Need Diverse Books�� fundraising campaign��– it’s vital, folks.

#SupportWNDB

Nightmarescape is T.S. Dann’s first book in a series. Before his writing career, he spent five years at Georgia State University earning a dual degree in psychology and sociology. After this, he spent several years working as a police officer in the Stone Mountain area. He currently resides in Atlanta where he rabidly works on the Nightmarescape series. His attitude toward all of his work is “If you hate it, perfect, fuck off,” so don’t direct your complaints to him, save them for the internet.

Here’s where you can find TS:

Facebook:��https://www.facebook.com/pages/TS-Dann/1562928327260182?ref=hl

Twitter:��@morbidTSDann

blog:��http://morbidpublicationstsdann.blogspot.com/

website: www.morbid-publications.com