Fans of Interracial Romance discussion
General IR Book Discussion
>
Another thought provoking blog about diversity in books (Justine Larbalestier)
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
Mod
Wow, what an excellent article. It makes me want to read her books. And yeah, people don't quite understand the effects of race unless they've experienced it or have studied it. It's hard to believe for a relatively rational person some of things that go on, and it's not intuitive, so unless people learn about it somehow they remain clueless and probably a little defensive.
Btw, Danielle, would you mind linking to that thread on Amazon? It sounds like an interesting discussion. :)
Mod
Long discussion, LOL. No one's suggested Viehl in there! For shame! She writes about an excellent PNR AA heroine.I'm going to read a short from Larbalestier, see if I care for her style. :D
Mod
I have How to Ditch Your Fairy by this author. You know me and faeries. :)
LOL, Danielle. Yeah, they have that one and the magic series at my library. I was kind of waffling between them because I love fantasy to bits, but when I try a new author I also try to start with her most polished effort, if I can, and it sounds like How to Ditch Your Fairy might be more so.
Mod
Mod
I have How to Ditch Your Fairy by this author. You know me and faeries. :)"
Ooh faeries! Was that a good book, Danielle?
I just read a short written by her, and it was pretty good. Sad but good and very socially conscious. I will definitely look for more of her writing. I had no idea she was married to Scott Westerfeld though! LOL.
Mod
Mod
Yeah, some blog mentioned that too and I tried to find pics of them together (I'm kinda nosy like that hehe) but only saw individual ones. I like author couple pics. :-)
Mod
Mod
Mod
http://bana05.blogspot.com/
"
Thanks for the blgo link Jeanieandjayha.
Mod
Mod
Arch wrote: "Jeanieandjayha wrote: "here is another good blog about writing:http://bana05.blogspot.com/
"
Thanks for the blgo link Jeanieandjayha.
"
yw, i really enjoyed that blog...gave me a lot to consider...savannah is a deep thinker. glad you enjoyed it.
Danielle wrote: "That was a wonderful post full of insight, JAJ. Thanks for sharing that with us."yw...i was glad that savannah wrote it
Rae wrote: "That's a great blog post by Savannah F. I just grabbed Being Plumville and can't wait to dive in cause I heard such good things about it."i really did enjoy that book...i've often told her that she is like the modern day, black betty neels...i loved betty neels stories...just loved them.
Mod
http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2...
Why My Protags Aren’t White
I’ve been asked a few times why none of my protags are white given that I am white. (So far that question has only come from white people.) I thought I’d answer the question at length so next time I get that particular email I can direct them here.
I don’t remember deciding that Reason, the protagonist of the Magic or Madness trilogy, would have a white Australian mother and an Indigenous Australian father. I don’t remember deciding that Tom would be white Australian or Jay-Tee Hispanic USian. But I made a conscious decision that none of the characters in How To Ditch Your Fairy would be white and that Liar would have a mixed race cast. Why?
Because a young Hispanic girl I met at a signing thanked me for writing an Hispanic character. Because when I did an appearance in Queens the entirely black and Hispanic teenage audience responded so warmly to my book with two non-white main characters. Because teens, both here and in Australia, have written thanking me for writing characters they could relate to. “Most books are so white,” one girl wrote me.
Because no white teen has ever complained about their lack of representation in those books. Or asked me why Reason and Jay-Tee aren’t white. They read and enjoyed the trilogy anyway. Despite the acres and acres of white books available to them.
Because I don’t live in an all-white world. Why on earth would I write books that are?
I’m not saying my books are perfect. They’re not. If I could go back and rewrite them I would be much more specific about Tom and Jay-Tee’s backgrounds. Tom is just white. I’m specific about his bit of Sydney and about his parents’ occupations, but not about their or his ethnicity. White is not just one flavour. Nor do I go into any kind of detail about what kind of Hispanic Jay-tee is. Puerto Rico? Mexico? Venezuela? Dominican Republic? All/none of the above? I say she’s from the Bronx but not where in the Bronx. It’s a big place. (Please forgive me, all my Bronx friends! Especially you, Coe.) As a result I was much more specific about Micah’s background in Liar. All mistakes and oversights in that book will be worked out in the books I’m writing now. The things I get wrong in those books will be fixed in the books I write after them. And so it goes . . . (I hope.)
Questions of representation were not foremost in my mind when I was writing the Magic or Madness trilogy. I’m a white girl who grew up in a predominately white country. Thinking about race and representation is something I have to make myself do because my life is not governed negatively by it as others’ lives are, like, say Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr.
It was the response of my readers that got me thinking hard about representation. Now those questions are foremost when I write.
Thus when I sat down to write How To Ditch Your Fairy I already knew none of the characters would be white. I also knew that I was writing a somewhat utopian world1 in which race and gender were not the axes of oppression that they are in our world. Female athletes having as strong a prospect of making a living at their sport as a boy is clearly not true in our world, but it is in the world of HTDYF. Nor is there any discrimination on the basis of race. But there is on the basis of class and geography. (I was not writing a perfect world.)
Not many people noticed, or if they did, they didn’t mention it to me, but I was dead chuffed by those who did. Thank you.
In some ways it’s very dystopian. [↩:]
Posted by Justine at 0:14, 22 July 2009 under State of the World, Writing life, Writing process | 9 Comments »
Comments
Benjamin Solah Says:
Excellent post. As a bit of a lefty, this really peaked my interest and dealing with race in this way makes me want to buy the books for my younger sisters.
You haven’t had any right-wing parents complain?
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 am
2. Justine Says:
The most consistent complaint I’ve had is about sex in the trilogy.
On the whole though I’ve escaped the kind of criticism some other authors get because a) I write fantasy b) I’m not a bestseller.
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:53 am
Sue Says:
I think it’s fantastic that you see the world the way it is. This is not an all-white world and I see no reason why you should try to pretend that it is. People need to learn to embrace their differences instead of always trying to fit in. Unfortunately, it’s conformity that makes people comfortable. Personally, I love your books and the diversity reflected in them!
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 am
Kelsey Says:
When I read HTDYF I didn’t even realize that they weren’t white. Did I skip over something? I pictured them as white because I am white.
I think that if writers skipped over the part where they describe their ethnicity then all readers would be more comfortable reading the story because they can decide what they want; what is relate able to them.
But myself, a hopeful writer, imagine characters by their personality. Their looks come later. I think if you go in writing a novel and you really believe that the characters aren’t white then it’s just how it is. But I don’t think i would go out of my way to make a character black if I didn’t picture them in my mind as black. If that makes sense.
Thanks for clearing that up, even though I never really thought about it.
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 am
Elodie Says:
Would people really dare criticize based on the race of your characters, or would they disguise it under some other complaint?
I’m kind of creeped out if they would, and would be taken seriously..
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 am
6. Justine Says:
Kelsey: Most of us, regardless of race sadly, wind up trained to expect characters to be white because the majority of books we read are full of white characters. But whites in particular mostly don’t have to think about race because its effects on us are positive not negative.
Elodie: I’m not sure it’s about daring. There are people who hold that whites should not write about non-whites because they invariably get it wrong, because of cultural appropriation, and because when they do so they regularly get far more attention and rewards and publicity than non-white writers who do the same. All of which is true.
When I sell my books I am never told by publishers that they already have too many books about race or about [pick ethnic/racial group:]. But I know of South Asian American/African American/Korean American writers whose books have not been picked up because the publishing house already had a South Asian/African American/Korean book.
Because for many white writers writing about other races/ethnicities can be seen as a sign of their virtuosity and writerly chops. Non white writers rarely get the same response. Which is ridiculous.
(It’s like the silly notion that a woman writing sensitive caring characters is normal but a man doing so shows exceptional skill.)
In the literary traditions I know most about—Australian, US and British—there have always been vastly more white protags. The previous examples have a longer and richer tradition that you tap into every time you write a new one. Every time you try to write about a non-white protag there are fewer literary precursors, making it harder. And many of those prior examples are stereotyped and appalling. It’s a lot to write against.