RE. Your Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation In Writing?

[Kevin]

Comrade, it appears that the "Little Tree" controversy did indeed result in the verdict that the author was a KKK member and that the memoir was mostly - but not completely - fiction. Cherokee tribe members have said that the book's details are inaccurate and stereotyped.

Nevertheless, Native American author Sherman Alexie calls it a "lovely little book." So, even as an act of "hypocrisy" ("atonement?") the book may end up serving exactly the purpose that the author intended. Irony aside, what are we to make of this?

"Writers are paid liars" - Harlan Ellison

[Comrade Tulayev]

Quote Originally Posted by Kevin

Comrade, it appears that the "Little Tree" controversy did indeed result in the verdict that the author was a KKK member and that the memoir was mostly - but not completely - fiction. Cherokee tribe members have said that the book's details are inaccurate and stereotyped. Nevertheless, Native American author Sherman Alexie calls it a "lovely little book." So, even as an act of "hypocrisy" ("atonement?") the book may end up serving exactly the purpose that the author intended. Irony aside, what are we to make of this? "Writers are paid liars" - Harlan Ellison

It is remarkable that this same person also wrote the George Wallace "Segregation Now and Forever" speech.

It is hard to make heads or tales of this hoax of a book. Hypocrisy vs Atonement... indeed.

I suspect that if Asa Carter truly had amended his ugly views of the world, he would have fessed up when called out for writing this fraudulent piece. That would have been a fine time to speak up and apologize for all the horrible things he had done with this life. Writing a "lovely little book" under the guise of fraud doesn't ring true with sentiments of atonement.

It's a shame though that we never did hear directly from the author about this controversy... I suppose all we have left is the book and our own speculation.

Its funny... this book actually was selected by the book club at my work over my own suggestion of McCarthy's Blood Meridian... perhaps I'm a little bitter about that... maybe biasing my opinion about "Little Tree"... ; )

[DarkView]

Hemingway's advice, "Write what you know" is a good and equitable answer for most writers regarding this topic, because we all end up writing totally from our own point of view. We can try to envision someone else's view and, if you want to use a person of another race as your main character that's fine. But in the end, the characters and the story is going to say what you want. I don't think any writer can appropriate a culture but only attempts to mimic it or impersonate it well enough for the purposes of a story. And that type of story might look clever on the page but will end up sounding phony, as you're not writing from the forces or culture that shaped you, the one you were born in.

[Justin Isis]

I don't believe limits should be placed on fictional expression, but I do object to cultural appropriation for the purposes of "authenticity" as a promotional tool - this applies to the entire genre of fake Native American writers (see Carter, Nasdijj and about a hundred others). 

Shriver's perspective seems pretty parochial and unaware of actual examples of negative appropriation; in other words she doesn't seem particularly cognizant of exploitative appropriation vs merely writing about a culture other than the one in which you were born.

In general I think writers should be pushing themselves more, which includes (if finances will allow it) travel to other countries and extended periods of living abroad to engage with other cultures. This would enrich the (currently pretty boring) English language writing scene.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Quote Originally Posted by DarkView

Hemingway's advice, "Write what you know" is a good and equitable answer for most writers regarding this topic, because we all end up writing totally from our own point of view. We can try to envision someone else's view and, if you want to use a person of another race as your main character that's fine. But in the end, the characters and the story is going to say what you want. I don't think any writer appropriates a culture but only attempts to mimic it or impersonate it well enough for the purposes of a story. And that type of story might look clever on the page but will end up sounding phony, as you're not writing from the forces or culture that shaped you, the one you were born in.

I think a big mistake with writers who try to capture other cultures is that if anything they try too hard to authentically depict/mimic the culture in question, and in the end it all just seems forced. It's probably better to just make stuff up, really, and not worry about phoniness. In the end, it's all artifice anyhow!

As for myself, I imagine I'd quickly get bored writing about French-Canadian immigrant Catholics.

[DarkView]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal

Quote Originally Posted by DarkView Hemingway's advice, "Write what you know" is a good and equitable answer for most writers regarding this topic, because we all end up writing totally from our own point of view. We can try to envision someone else's view and, if you want to use a person of another race as your main character that's fine. But in the end, the characters and the story is going to say what you want. I don't think any writer appropriates a culture but only attempts to mimic it or impersonate it well enough for the purposes of a story. And that type of story might look clever on the page but will end up sounding phony, as you're not writing from the forces or culture that shaped you, the one you were born in. I think a big mistake with writers who try to capture other cultures is that if anything they try too hard to authentically depict/mimic the culture in question, and in the end it all just seems forced. It's probably better to just make stuff up, really, and not worry about phoniness. In the end, it's all artifice anyhow! As for myself, I imagine I'd quickly get bored writing about French-Canadian immigrant Catholics.

To be clear, I wasn't referring to phoniness in relation to artifice, (fiction is precisely that) but in relation to attempting to depict cultures we were never a part of as if we were.

[Druidic]

I thinl it was Ellison who wrote a story with two main characters, one black, one white. You never learn which is which.

Ellison strikes me as an Old Time Liberal Guy in any case. Emphasizing the similarities among folk, not looking for differences. The common glue that binds us together. Today that's lost. Today diversity is our fetish.
Hey, man. You're not like me...you're different.
No wonder race relations in America are at an all time low.

I tend to think Hemingway's advice is helpful to the beginner. But it's a bit self-limiting to the mature artist.

[gveranon]

Frederic Prokosch's famous novel The Seven Who Fled (1937) was set in Asia despite the fact that Prokosch had never been there. He relied entirely on books and his imagination, a fact that was widely reported with no damage to his reputation. The Seven Who Fled was once acclaimed, but seems to have been mostly forgotten, which may be just as well, because many seemingly-intelligent people would simply be incapable of reading it now. I read it back in my teens or early twenties after seeing that Prokosch was a favorite of both Harlan Ellison and Gore Vidal.

If I remember rightly, Vidal said something like, Don't write about what you know; write about what stirs your imagination. Of course, that is also one-sided advice. And, to confuse matters further, I just finished reading the metafictional novel Barley Patch by Gerald Murnane, in which Murnane's authorial persona claims to be unable to imagine anything at all, despite writing about nothing but the images in his mind; the images in his mind are real to him, in their own way of being real. Perhaps it goes without saying that Murnane is sometimes very un-PC (though, refreshingly, the whole problem of PC seems to be entirely off his radar).

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

No wonder race relations in America are at an all time low.

Worse than the days of the Native American genocide and black slavery? Impressive going, America!

[Ibrahim]

With all respect,that linked-to article/transcript is a mess.
There are better ways to refute the idea of cultural appropriation than those set up as straw men in that piece. The sombrero incident at the beginning which could be crudely summarized by the sensible position that you shouldn't caricaturize groups that you yourself don't belong to, has little to do with the legitimate complaint against restraints placed upon the literary imagination. The author also displays very little of what she describes as the very merit of art and literature, viz. compassion, understanding, attempting to comprehend another's plight or point of view.

If anything, articles like these contribute to a climate of shallow thinking, and perpetuate the very thing they seem to take stance against, because both sides have in common a lack of rigorous logic. Hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frère.