From: Susan Daugherty <kdaugherty>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 15:49:28 -0500

Thanks for expressing part of what I was trying to say!

Susan Daugherty


At 03:38 PM 10/15/99 00, you wrote: described by Beverly of native American children. I am trying hard to view the Wilder Little House books in that particular light but have not been altogether successful. books, but anyway here goes: I always found Ma hard to take; Laura?s fondness and preference for Pa was evident throughout the series. Therefore my sympathies lay with the two of them. While Pa was among the settlers pushing the Indians off their land, he also had a very different opinion of them than Ma and the other settlers. This was clear to me even as a child, and I remember feeling dismay when Ma or Mrs. Scott insulted the Indians. What I learned was not that Indians were savages, but that most white people thought they were.
 more attractive than her own sister, and her description of the old Indian in The Long Winter (who predicted the coming hardships), I perceived a fascination for things that are different. It is of vital importance to me as a writer that I express this fascination in my own work. In my first book, Seesaw Girl, I examine the culture of traditional Korea. Several Koreans who have read the book have expressed disapproval of my portrayal of the culture, in which women were severely restricted?not because of inaccuracy but because, as one of them said, "You will make Americans think we are barbarians." There were many positive things about the culture, which I tried to show as well. But to omit the negative would do a disservice both to myself and to my readers; I neither want to write nor read literature that evinces only the positive aspects of any culture.

 
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 (Clarion Books
 Single Susan Daugherty Librarian Franklin Elementary School Madison, WI 53705
Received on Fri 15 Oct 1999 03:49:28 PM CDT