Diversity in Fiction.
Apr. 9th, 2011 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misslj_authorI've been thinking about this for a while but it came to a head today after a discussion with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jerusalemorbust last night and a discussion between meredith_shayne and myself this morning. (Both of whom I hope will comment here. :D) The subject being multiculturalism and interracial relationships in novels and characters that are in some way disabled and characters that are over the age of 25. (Warning: this post does contain a bit of self-absorbed hyperbole alas.)
It's been on my mind so much, personally, because in writing my Archangels novel, I am very aware that choosing to have each of the ten Archangels be a particular race, I am putting myself out there to be potentially inflammatory and/or offensive. It's on my mind that I could be called a racist or accused of cultural appropriation. Not to mention the religion thing, but I'm choosing to ignore it for the simple reason that I ignore it in the book. They're Archangels, they have a job to do, there's no praying or reading of scripture or anything like that. They just happen to be made by God – and God means different things to different people – there's no pontificating about any religion because that's just not what I want to write about.
So, I have white, Maori, Indian (from India), Chinese, black, Russian, Columbian and Cambodian characters. I've asked a few people about describing these characters because I want it to be very clear that they are not the default of white, male, mid-twenties, because they can switch gender as they choose, they aren't all white, and, as Archangels, older than time itself, they really aren't in their mid-twenties. My main concern is stereotyping: I don't want to describe them too much but I don't want to scrimp on it, either.
They are, in their natural state, creatures of light and energy. They take human shapes so as to do their duties and interact with humanity and also, the pesky side effect of their natural state tends to blind and melt the brains of humans. So it's a protection for human eyes as well as a means towards interaction without too many problems. Of course, there are problems, because otherwise there would be no story, but that's not what I'm going to talk about here.
I don't want to do PoC a disservice or show disrespect in how I write these characters. They're all likable characters, they all have flaws. (She says with great modesty!) I don't want the colour of their skin or the race their chosen forms are to be a deciding factor in whether or not they're likable. In short, I am genuinely terrified of being disrespectful.
Then there's able bodied versus not so able bodied. I'm working on a sequel to City of Gold right now, and my two main characters are older men, one of them has less mobility than his partner. This is due to a war injury and because of it, his hip and knee play up. Now, that sounds all fine and probably, to someone who doesn't suffer this sort of pain and the debilitation that goes with it as it gets worse, nothing worth mentioning.
I want to say right here and now, that's bullshit. Chronic pain is, to be blunt, a bitch. I know; I live with it. Every. Single. Day. The pain and frustration my character suffers is familiar to me, because I deal with this myself. The atrophy of muscles, the irreparable damage to cartilage and nerves makes mobility difficult, makes joints sometimes unusable. This is hard for me to articulate here, actually – it's easier for me to do in fiction because I can separate myself from it, in a way.
The character doesn't talk about it unless asked directly and unless it's someone he knows very well, he'll just say it's a war wound and change the subject. (Setting is the Byzantine Empire, the year 1131AD.) Why doesn't he talk about it? Because he's ashamed.
I know what that feels like too. My own situation makes me ashamed to say the words, "I'm disabled." I hate that I feel shame when I say this, but the reaction to these two little words is either pity – and I don't want pity – or disgust. Neither reflect the reality of my life, but there we go. Now, I, like my character, don't want to go into the nitty gritty of it, but it wasn't a war wound for me. It is what it is, I live with it daily and I don't particularly like explaining it – even to medical professionals because there's always that lingering shame of it and that whatever I say will be met with pity and/or disgust.
And it is, each and every time. Even in, I'm afraid to say, some of my friends. I know they don't mean it, and I know it's not conscious. I know that the pity they exhibit is genuine compassion and they wish they could help or something, but... having this, living with this does not mean I need to be treated as any less a person. So yeah, it's a bugbear and I can completely understand why authors would feel concerned that they might give offence when writing a character with a disability that they themselves don't have or have direct experience with (i.e., caring for a relative, working in support for that disability, etc.).
Which brings me to my point, in a long winded way – how do we, as writers, approach these topics that we, personally, may not have experience with, without giving offence to readers who do ?
People are people and love is love. Age, race, religion, disability, sex – none of this should matter. Unfortunately, because of societal conditioning, it does. And that's terrible.
jerusalemorbust last night and a discussion between meredith_shayne and myself this morning. (Both of whom I hope will comment here. :D) The subject being multiculturalism and interracial relationships in novels and characters that are in some way disabled and characters that are over the age of 25. (Warning: this post does contain a bit of self-absorbed hyperbole alas.)It's been on my mind so much, personally, because in writing my Archangels novel, I am very aware that choosing to have each of the ten Archangels be a particular race, I am putting myself out there to be potentially inflammatory and/or offensive. It's on my mind that I could be called a racist or accused of cultural appropriation. Not to mention the religion thing, but I'm choosing to ignore it for the simple reason that I ignore it in the book. They're Archangels, they have a job to do, there's no praying or reading of scripture or anything like that. They just happen to be made by God – and God means different things to different people – there's no pontificating about any religion because that's just not what I want to write about.
So, I have white, Maori, Indian (from India), Chinese, black, Russian, Columbian and Cambodian characters. I've asked a few people about describing these characters because I want it to be very clear that they are not the default of white, male, mid-twenties, because they can switch gender as they choose, they aren't all white, and, as Archangels, older than time itself, they really aren't in their mid-twenties. My main concern is stereotyping: I don't want to describe them too much but I don't want to scrimp on it, either.
They are, in their natural state, creatures of light and energy. They take human shapes so as to do their duties and interact with humanity and also, the pesky side effect of their natural state tends to blind and melt the brains of humans. So it's a protection for human eyes as well as a means towards interaction without too many problems. Of course, there are problems, because otherwise there would be no story, but that's not what I'm going to talk about here.
I don't want to do PoC a disservice or show disrespect in how I write these characters. They're all likable characters, they all have flaws. (She says with great modesty!) I don't want the colour of their skin or the race their chosen forms are to be a deciding factor in whether or not they're likable. In short, I am genuinely terrified of being disrespectful.
Then there's able bodied versus not so able bodied. I'm working on a sequel to City of Gold right now, and my two main characters are older men, one of them has less mobility than his partner. This is due to a war injury and because of it, his hip and knee play up. Now, that sounds all fine and probably, to someone who doesn't suffer this sort of pain and the debilitation that goes with it as it gets worse, nothing worth mentioning.
I want to say right here and now, that's bullshit. Chronic pain is, to be blunt, a bitch. I know; I live with it. Every. Single. Day. The pain and frustration my character suffers is familiar to me, because I deal with this myself. The atrophy of muscles, the irreparable damage to cartilage and nerves makes mobility difficult, makes joints sometimes unusable. This is hard for me to articulate here, actually – it's easier for me to do in fiction because I can separate myself from it, in a way.
The character doesn't talk about it unless asked directly and unless it's someone he knows very well, he'll just say it's a war wound and change the subject. (Setting is the Byzantine Empire, the year 1131AD.) Why doesn't he talk about it? Because he's ashamed.
I know what that feels like too. My own situation makes me ashamed to say the words, "I'm disabled." I hate that I feel shame when I say this, but the reaction to these two little words is either pity – and I don't want pity – or disgust. Neither reflect the reality of my life, but there we go. Now, I, like my character, don't want to go into the nitty gritty of it, but it wasn't a war wound for me. It is what it is, I live with it daily and I don't particularly like explaining it – even to medical professionals because there's always that lingering shame of it and that whatever I say will be met with pity and/or disgust.
And it is, each and every time. Even in, I'm afraid to say, some of my friends. I know they don't mean it, and I know it's not conscious. I know that the pity they exhibit is genuine compassion and they wish they could help or something, but... having this, living with this does not mean I need to be treated as any less a person. So yeah, it's a bugbear and I can completely understand why authors would feel concerned that they might give offence when writing a character with a disability that they themselves don't have or have direct experience with (i.e., caring for a relative, working in support for that disability, etc.).
Which brings me to my point, in a long winded way – how do we, as writers, approach these topics that we, personally, may not have experience with, without giving offence to readers who do ?
People are people and love is love. Age, race, religion, disability, sex – none of this should matter. Unfortunately, because of societal conditioning, it does. And that's terrible.
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Date: Fri, Apr. 29th, 2011 05:38 am (UTC)I tend to use twitter for just about everything - links I find interesting, chatting with friends, random musing, grumbling about pain and of course, talk about my writing. The challenge of writing something in 140 characters appeals to me, too. And I've met a lot of wonderful people through using it, as well as having some amusing experiences - I use gomiso.com, which is a movie/tv applet that posts when you log in to say you're watching something and when I did it for a movie called "Gentlemen Broncos," I was suddenly friended by dozens of fans of the sports team, The Broncos. And online betting agencies. I had to tweet that no, "Gentlemen Broncos" had nothing to do with sport and I never tweet about rugby (my sport of viewing choice is world cup soccer!) so they were going to be very disappointed if they were hoping for Broncos chat!
Thursday Thirteen - like a Friday Five but on a Thursday and with thirteen things? That sounds awesome. I'm a big fan of LJ and oh, when it was down bc of the DDOS, that was a small revelation in how much I use it.
Good luck for the move! The economy's been such a kick in the pants for everyone. Sometimes I think the governments of the world should all agree to scratch all international debt and start from scratch, with no one owing anyone else any money. Which will never, ever happen, it's like a wistful dream. I'm sorry to hear you and your partner were both laid off work.
Ooh, good luck with Carina! I've heard nothing but good things about them, so I hope they pick up your Angelic Prophecies series. I'm working on two novels at the same time because I'm a glutton for punishment, one's the Archangels one for Noble and the other is a 12th century Byzantine empire story for Dreamspinner. That one's slower going as I have to research things that I'm not 100% sure on, but the research is fascinating, so I've been doing a lot of reading and peering at maps thoughtfully. I'm excited about both of them, I can ramble happily about things I've found in the history of the Silk Road for hours! I've got a short story coming out in June with Less Than Three press in an angel themed anthology and another with Freaky Fountain Press coming out in July in a mythology anthology, and I'm sure the plot bunnies will give me ideas for other short things as I work on the novels. The plot bunnies are evil and demanding creatures.
I hope your headache went away, if you're near a health food store, I highly recommend some peppermint essential oil and some eucalyptus essential oil. Just inhaling them helps the headache go away, along with painkillers and rest, etc.
no subject
Date: Fri, Apr. 29th, 2011 06:26 am (UTC)Thank you for the reminder of the peppermint and eucalyptus essential oil, byt the by. I'll have to see about a side trip to Whole Foods, Trader Joes or Sunflower and see what it yields.
Thanks for the luck with Carina. I got a pass on a shifter story I submitted but the revise/resub allowed me to expand the story by over 20K words and it was all the better for it. The initial R&R as well as the pass, were incredibly detailed and enthusiastic about the work. There was true regret in not being able to offer contract and sincerity in the invite to sub something else, so I'm looking forward to it and hope to work with them soon. My only concern is that the editor that I worked with on the R&R is going through some things and off her game. I hope that when I get around to getting my subs in (three in total), that she's back on track and ready for a new author.
Can you tell me more about your experience at Noble Romance Publishing? They're on my short list for my upcoming stories and I'd like some personal insight. We can take this to email or private message if you like. I know it's better to be as private as possible in feedback, even when it's nothing but positive.
Plot bunnies are indeed evil things. I have a historical menage nagging at me and I hate the idea of doing a historical. I don't retain dates and such well and the whole thing makes me self-conscious, yet the idea won't go away. I've already struggled through working in a genre I didn't like for a charity piece that then didn't go where we'd hoped. But that's okay, I'm revising it for a call at Carina and hope to have it be my first work with them. But having struggled through a steampunk, I know that only woe lies down the historical path, yet still, there it is. Sigh.
If I recall correctly, Friday Five is a meme of five questions answered by the participants. Thursday Thirteen is a list of 13 things each week that are completely up to you. Today I did 13 songs from my writing playlist. I tend to do excerpts of 13 paragraphs from a WIP or as a guest blog from fellow authors. I did one recently on natural sleep aids since the insomnia has been doing its thing. So it's anything you wish at the time. I love it. It can be a bit of work if I remember last minute, but it's worth it and has built a loyal readership. I also appreciate the fact that it's reciprocal. I go and visit a T13 and they visit me so I can get as many eyes on my page as I'm willing to visit other pages. They might not all comment, but the majority do visit based on my stat logs.
I can see how twitter really allows for mass communication and challenging communication at that. I just haven't caught the hang of it. I've had conversations with a few fellow authors from different loops, but I don't always know how to jump in and what to say to whom. I do want to pick it up though, I can see how valuable it is just from how much I use facebook. I just gotta pick it up and get a handle on it.
Do you workout at all? I'm exhausted but I still need to workout before I get to head to bed and I'm listing to the left about it. *smile* I'm still going to do it, but I reaaallly don't want to. In my defense, most of it is that I don't want to go into the other room. I'd rather workout here so I can finish watching this show. But even if I bring my hula hoop out and do it, I'm supposed to ride the bike for at least ten minutes, so I'm stuck going in there regardless. It's my own fault, I should have done it early today, but the insomnia has me used to middle of the night workouts and I fall into that habit with the least provocation.
Hmm, if I trade time on the bike for dancing and then do a full bike workout tomorrow, that evens out right? *wink*
no subject
Date: Fri, Apr. 29th, 2011 07:03 am (UTC)I love historicals, though my history interests are fairly rare in romance, especially as I'm *such* a nit picker myself. It's because I know my own nit-picking that I'm doing so much research. I've also been picking the brains of a good friend and co-writer on medieval Korea and China, as one of my two main characters is Korean and he and his lover who is Greek Byzantine are heading towards China. So it's a Byzantine-medieval period road novel. On horses. It also allows me to write about places that have fascinated me since I was a child, and cultures and history of those cultures that I love reading about. The countries the Silk Road goes through are full of all these amazing ruins with so much history and oral history attached to them, that I find myself losing entire nights on reading and looking at beautiful photos.
Oh righto - that sounds like a lot of fun. I might give it a go next Thursday, when I'm not Ms Shake-a-lot! (Though the smell of this curry is amazing and if it tastes half as good as it smells, it'll be worth it.)
I walk, although the idea of a hoola hoop is an awesome one and I think I'll have to invest in one because that's something I could actually physically do. I usually queue up the playlist of whatever I'm writing on my iPod and walk, although I'm slow because of the disabilities. And when it's wet weather, the hoola hoop would be an awesome alternative. Thanks for giving me the idea, that's brilliant!
My email addy is MemorySorrowThorn@gmail.com so feel free to drop me a line. :)