"In 2014 I'll only read writers of colour."

It's not so much the discrimination that bothers me - whatever, though yeah, if someone were all about reading only white, male authors I suspect it'd garner a reaction from her.

It's the idea expressed in the quote you pulled. Apparently, white folk, or European folk, or European white women, or whatever, all write "the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again," while the people from other countries or skin tones apparently all write "new" stories.

Yeah. That's the kind of attitude I think can be more destructive than overt racism. Overt racism is stupid; most people with two or three neurons to rub together don't avow it, at least publicly. This 'I will read of the black people and hear their new, different tales, from their completely unique experiences,' smacks, to me, of the patented 'magical black folk,' of movie and tv trope.

Why presume people of one background (it's not even a remotely specific background) will all write the same "formulaic" thing and people from another place or another skin tone will do something else? There are white people of European descent in projects in Chicago and black people who grew up in wealthy neighbourhoods and went to the best schools. There's someone with the same thoughts, dreams, ideas, etc., in some far-flung corner of Zimbabwe as someone in Sacramento.

I saw this documentary, The Boy Who Flies about a paraglider who ends up in Malawi and teaches someone there to glide. The guy in Malawi always wanted to be a pilot, but didn't have the money to go to school. I'm pretty sure that doesn't have shit to do with his being black or non-European, if you see what I mean.

aruna said:

Interesting article in the Guardian.

I get her. I truly do.

...my list has an entry requirement: I will only read novels written by authors who are not from western-European backgrounds. I will not be reading anything written by white authors.

Of course, I know accusations of reverse racism are pending, on the same vein that women-only book prizes and women-only reading lists have been declared sexist. And no doubt people will say I am limiting myself by purposely avoid books on the basis of an arbitrary factor. But it's the opposite: I see it as a way of opening myself up to new stories, rather than re-iterations of the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again.

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Ehh...I...as a PoC, I want to applaud her decision to do this, but her reasoning just rubbed me the wrong way. My first thought upon seeing "I see it as a way of opening myself up to new stories, rather than re-iterations of the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again" was, "Butbutbut! I'm a PoC and I write stories that have nothing to do with my PoC-ness!! " It just feels like she's lumping all non-write writers into one giant lump of "People who write different stories"...and the only thing it's based on is the fact that we're not white. I find that and the thought that white writers write "the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again" really quite offensive.

Instead of choosing books based on the color of the author's skin, a better goal would be something like, "I will only read books written ABOUT characters or settings that offer a peek into different cultural and/or socioeconomic environments because I'm tired of reading books that revolve around middle class western-Europeans."

aruna said:

Yes, that's a much better way of putting it.
One of the reasons I started writing at all is because I was truly tired of the same same cultural assumptions and backgrounds: Europe, mostly UK, and USA, told by people of those backgrounds. Growing up, it was ALL I ever got to read. I longed for other stories, other backgrounds.
But when I started writing myself, I was told, by my publisher, to keep away from my own backyard (Guyana) as the mainstream (white) reading public wasn't interested. And we all know the meme that putting a PoC on the cover means that white people aren't likely to read it. I don't know how much this perception that publishers have is true; I just know that in order to break it, yes, we DO need to make a concerted effort to read those other stories, other background. It may be only PoC who want to do this. It would be great if white Europeans and Americans followed suit.

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Urgghh, the bolded part...

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I think the perception that white readers aren't interested in books about other cultures is slooooowly shifting. Books like The Kite Runner, The White Tiger, Cutting for Stone, and Life of Pi have sold/ are selling well, which is encouraging to see. It's a slow change, and I can only hope the move will gain momentum as time passes.

Fwiw, I hope you're writing what you want to write now. Let me know if/when you do write a book with Guyanese characters. That sounds hella interesting and I would read the shit out of it.

Putputt said:

That sounds hella interesting and I would read the shit out of it.

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*raises hand*

Me, too.

Australian writer Anita Heiss issued her first Black Book Challenge in 2011. It was a list of 99 'must read' books by Indigenous authors. She compiled a second list in 2013. I am working my way through them.

aruna said:

You dismiss this "other" viewpoint as a TV trope, but trust me, there IS this other experience and viewpoint and attitudes. It may sound "magical" to you that people in India or the Amazon feel differently about life and have their own experiences, that may contradict your own; it doesn't make it an the less true.

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I might be wrong, but I think you might have misread cornflake's post. I thought corny was pointing out something that rubbed me the wrong way too, which is the assumption that just because a book is written by a PoC, it makes the book automatically exotic and different, which is in line with the whole "magical black folk" trope.

aruna said:

Actually, I've been doing what she's doing for years, though not to the exclusion of Eurocentric books. But I always look for that "other" cultural experience, because I feel it makes me richer as a human being. For instance, I've read two of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novels, Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, and just loved them. I was a kid in boarding school when the whole Biafra crisis was going on and I had a (white) friend from Nigeria who was worried about it. But of course one forgets these things, and it was only when I read Half of a Yellow Sun that I fully understood the tensions and attitudes that caused the crisis.
And I just bought Americanah -- it's only 99p right now on as a Kindle book! Can't wait to read it.
Right now I'm finishing off a fairly typical (but page-turning) thriller set in Chicago; the tropes are all there and I like the book, and will probably read the next in the series; but next in line on my Kindle is And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, and then comes Americanah.
The fact that publishers (rightly or wrongly) perceive there is an inherent bias by white readers to read Eurocentric novels shows that the covert racism of which Cornflake speaks is already, somehow, in place; I see no problem at all in making the deliberate effort to do the opposite.
And yes, I do think this is slowly, slowly changing. And the more opinions like this come into public view, the better. Though some of the comments make me shudder...

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I'm kinda confused by the bolded part I think cornflake was referring to something else?

Interestingly, I don't think I make a conscious effort to read books with characters who are from cultural backgrounds that I'm unfamiliar with, but a quick look at my Kindle list has six out of the last ten books I bought being about characters from non-western-European cultures. I tend to buy books that have many reviews on Amazon, so it's great to see that these books are being noticed and bought by many, many people (I'm saying this based on the number of reviews these books have garnered).

Do let me know when you start reading And the Mountains Echoed. I'm about 40% into the book and I paused because guhhhhh so much feels. I need to share my feels before I continue!!! >_<"

So...I guess under her categories of the races of authors she'll read from, I'm not a PoC? I'm American, white and Asian. I don't actually go around in real life identifying as a PoC, but still.

Her idea is an interesting one, but it bothers me. There are a variety of white people. A scrappy Irish kid from the Bronx is not going have the same stories as an European Oxbridge grad, for instance. I can see her point about reading outside of the usual perspectives and seeking new cultural lenses, which I think is awesome, but...

PoC authors don't uniformly write about PoCs. And even if you are a PoC, if you grew up in North America or Europe, you'd have some sense of a Western perspective, even if it's to be critical of it.

I see it as a way of opening myself up to new stories, rather than re-iterations of the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again.

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This bit bothered me too. Is she really saying that all non-POC books are formulaic fables? Opening yourself up to new viewpoints is great, but why insult all 'white' viewpoints in the process?

I think that's a completely valid approach.

After the last literature review course for my English degree, I've made a somewhat similar resolution, to pick more books written by women from now on. I wouldn't exactly exclude male authors - when I'm researching my current WIP I'm going to read a lot of men again, because I want to read stuff written in the period I'll be trying to emulate - but when it comes to checking out a new writer just for the sake of checking out a new writer, I'm more likely to do it if she's a woman. Not because I think men are so monolothic that no man could possibly provide a fresh perspective on anything. It's just - I feel I'm still hearing enough from them anyway. Most movies I watch are going to be made by men. And most TV shows too. I'm not worried at all that I will lose touch with the male view on things.

Lots of my favourite writers are still men. I guess my top twenty of favourite books would still be dominated by them. And I plan on re-reading so many of them eventually. It's just right now I'm out for something else.

(For what it's worth: I don't necessarily think there's gender-based difference in style, or that female narratives are going to be more "emotional" or should deal with experiences exclusive to people who are conventionally identified as female - they are more likely to pass the Bechdel test though, and while that may be no surefire guarantee for feminist palatiblity either, I'm definitely here for that.)

In anthropology class I heard that when told a dry bones version of the staple European stories like Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, primitive tribes were puzzled and bored. Some tribe members were especially put out with Romeo and Juliet. They thought they were stupid and should have died.

I'm not sure how I could find the reference after all these years but it does make sense. I majored in Literature so had to take classes in literature from many cultures and countries. There are differences from culture to culture and skin color has nothing to do with it.

I remember reading Victory, a short novel by Joseph Conrad, close to the time of the anthropology class and being puzzled by the individual characters, their cultural outlooks and their reactions to a threat. The characters are Wang, a Chinese man. Axel Heist, a European, and a woman whose name I cannot remember but who had a seductive voice. The European man died of a broken heart--well, he committed suicide, but suicide over a woman is an incomprehensible act in some cultures.

I don't think anyone reads the novel anymore--it is told from several POVs, hops heads, contains foreign words and (gasp) adverbs. It was a popular success in its day, which turned Conrad's supporters against the novel, because nothing kills great literature like popular appeal. But I digress.

The only other examples of cultural differences coloring stories that I can think of, are Magic Realism and the various creation myths. But I believe it is important for a writer to explore literature from other cultures and especially, from other genders and social classes. It makes sense to read it in blocks of like- authors. Unless, of course, the author is hellbent on writing a formula best seller.--s6

Putputt said:

Instead of choosing books based on the color of the author's skin, a better goal would be something like, "I will only read books written ABOUT characters or settings that offer a peek into different cultural and/or socioeconomic environments because I'm tired of reading books that revolve around middle class western-Europeans."

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I love this idea, and I'd love to see an AW-recommended list of books in this category. It would be a great way to get outside my usual genre nook and explore some of the books I've been meaning to read. I know "Life of Pi" and "Throne of the Crescent Moon" have been on my to-read list for a long time.

aruna said:

This is a given... but why does it bother you? I'm sure someone who grew up as a scrappy Irish kid in the Bronx would be interested in reading books that reflected his/her own perspective; similarly, an Oxbridge Don would possibly choose literary novels, Booker prize candidates, Pulitzer Prizewinners, etc.

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Maybe some people like to read in their own milieus and about people like them. But there are other readers who seek out stories that are very different to the ones they grew up with.

I was reacting to her...

I see it as a way of opening myself up to new stories, rather than re-iterations of the same formulaic fables we've heard time and time again.

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Putputt said:

Instead of choosing books based on the color of the author's skin, a better goal would be something like, "I will only read books written ABOUT characters or settings that offer a peek into different cultural and/or socioeconomic environments because I'm tired of reading books that revolve around middle class western-Europeans."

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Well put. I know plenty of PoC born and educated and raised in North America, Roman Catholic or some non-RC Christian denomination... Even if they still have 'old country' ties in Pakistan, Trinidad, Serbia or wherever, they are pretty 'Western' or 'North American' or what have you otherwise. It's almost reinforcing the idea that somehow PoC will always be 'different' and outside of the mainstream culture they've grown up in and are immersed in.

ETA: I can understand what she means about reading the same fables over and over again as well, even though it is presumptuous. I'd find vampire or demon elements from cultures I'm less familiar with would be much more interesting to read than yet another Dracula or Arthurian Legends re-hashing. If she'd left skin colour out of it and just... well I suppose people would have paid less attention to her statement, maybe? Not saying someone's been deliberately stoking controversy but most journalists and their editors know what generates more clicks...

aruna said:

Why not BOTH? I certainly read both! On the one hand I always longed to read (and write) books about the kind of people I knew best and set in my own country; on the other hand, I'm eager to read fiction set in countries I know nothing at all about: Nigeria, Burma, Singapore, Afghanistan etc, to mention just a few from last year. I love both kinds of books.
I'm not so keen, any more, about the usual US or GB settings... it's a matter of saturation! I'm sure there are still lots of great books; but I enjoy being an armchair traveller, as that's the only way I'll get to visit these countries.

In fact, it's the latter version -- the reluctance of most readers to venture beyond their own country and culture -- that is under discussion right now.

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No, I completely see your point! Of course there should be more books and more characters who are not European or American or Canadian. And we should and have to write books that feature different places and different cultures, whether they reflect your own experiences or not.

I like being an armchair traveler, too, and learning through reading about other people. Only pointing out that there are a lot of differing perspectives within Western cultures, too. Also, she didn't seem to have a Mixed or Biracial Author category.

I don't know why most people don't want to venture out of their box when reading. I've read romance readers say that they don't want certain perspectives ruining their fantasyland, which I think is ridiculous. I've had to read outside of my little box because how many novels out there feature white and Asian girls who like to write who are from New York City?

I've been making an effort to not only read more stories by more diverse writers, but I've been also searching for stories that have more diverse characters. Sometimes I don't know the race of the writer unless I google them or something. As a white writer who is trying not to write in the "mainstream" way, of course I'm gonna be like, "But heyyy my books are not like those others." I think reading certain books as an exercise for a short time would be an interesting project, but me being me I also wouldn't want someone to not take a chance on my stuff for the rest of their life or anything. ;-)

Reading stories with all white, straight characters usually makes me feel like something is missing, especially in the past year. And I really think learning from this forum and having my eyes opened to some things has helped.