From: Maia <maiakevin>
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 11:47:29 -0800

Monica - I would be surprised if anyone was offended by you! You always stay on topic, your posts are always insightful. I think my husband may tire of "Monica said..." because, whether we agree on a given point, I always find your posts worth significant consideration. You teach me. And you are not "just" a teacher. Even if such a "just" existed, it would apply to those teachers who read without thinking, who assign and accept without thinking. Not folks like you, who obviously pour so much work into what you do on a daily basis, and who offer so many wonderful insights into the classroom for those of us who are not there. (I could add the names of other such wise teachers from the list here, but then I would forget some, and that would be awful!)

For mine, I know my positions often aren't popular. But I also know I am not a solitary, either - and I know that some of the folks who feel the way I do about, say, issues of authenticity, have dropped off the listservs (here and on childlit), or feel forced to speak differently in the public forum than they do in private. There sometimes seems to be little real room for the discussion, and if there isn't room for the discussion, then those voices will remain frozen out of the market. When you said that you didn't want to offend authors, I felt chastised offense is not the point - and yet, if we don't speak about this, we're stuck where we are. Just as with any of the limiting "isms" (racism, sexism, arguably nationalism), this is uncomfortable, it is painful, it can be ugly to discuss.

But look at Coman's Berry, if you will. What is admirable about her? Her petulance? Her coldness? Her zombi-like relationship with Josh? No, it is her honesty, painful and crude though it is. She can be - I hope she will become - a catalyst. Just like so many adolescents. It is what they are both despised and, by some, revered for. It is a power that we adults could well do to reincorporate into our own lives - the power to instigate and embrace vast change.

Also, and I've been meaning to say this for a while: having written something with good intent but to an undesired effect is not a crime. Wanting to open narrow minds is a good aspiration. Wanting to embrace diversity by representing it can come from a good source - the desire for wholeness. And even having having written something that was shallow or insensitive but that you meant to be good is not a crime - it is an occasion for learning. I have written some truly stupid things. I have been ignorant, just like Berry. I have failed in my ideas and my words. So, we go on.

When we argue for authenticity (those of us who still do in this forum), it is not to bash other writers past and present. It is to open minds. It is so that the next novel written, published, awarded, will be the best that it can be, something true, and so that teachers and librarians will put _that_ book into the hands of children. I want to hear real stories. Real stories have the power to make worlds, and to reveal them. Real stories are the apple on the tree.

-- Maia

-maia at littlefolktales.org www.littlefolktales.org the Spirited Review: www.littlefolktales.org/reviews
Received on Thu 01 Feb 2001 01:47:29 PM CST