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Re: National Book Award Winner and Nominees -- ONE CRAZY SUMMER
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:43:29 -0500 (EST)
Francesca raises an issue of historical plausibility.As a general trend she is surely correct -- the broader pattern of changing "slave names" came la ter. And yet Malcolm X changed his name in 1952 (at least that is what I se e on one site) and Cassius Clay changed his in 1964, While they were Muslim s as is not the case in One Crazy Summer, their actions might quite easily have inspired an angry, determined, young poet. The larger question is what obligations historical fiction has to history -- and that is far from clea r to me. Plausibility in historical fiction is at some crossing point betwe en a vividly drawn and imagined personal reality and a social historical co ntext. I think it is fair to call historical fiction implausible if a chara cter is out of step with her plausible context -- even as we must also reco gnize that human beings are individual and are not always defined by the ge neral social norms. It seems to me that Cecile is a plausible individual of her time, even if she is not a typical
one. She passes the test that we ca n ask of historical fiction: if a character is out of step with the norms o f her age the author must show us how and why she is so unusual. Rita does that.
Marc Aronson
Received on Tue 23 Nov 2010 07:43:29 PM CST
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:43:29 -0500 (EST)
Francesca raises an issue of historical plausibility.As a general trend she is surely correct -- the broader pattern of changing "slave names" came la ter. And yet Malcolm X changed his name in 1952 (at least that is what I se e on one site) and Cassius Clay changed his in 1964, While they were Muslim s as is not the case in One Crazy Summer, their actions might quite easily have inspired an angry, determined, young poet. The larger question is what obligations historical fiction has to history -- and that is far from clea r to me. Plausibility in historical fiction is at some crossing point betwe en a vividly drawn and imagined personal reality and a social historical co ntext. I think it is fair to call historical fiction implausible if a chara cter is out of step with her plausible context -- even as we must also reco gnize that human beings are individual and are not always defined by the ge neral social norms. It seems to me that Cecile is a plausible individual of her time, even if she is not a typical
one. She passes the test that we ca n ask of historical fiction: if a character is out of step with the norms o f her age the author must show us how and why she is so unusual. Rita does that.
Marc Aronson
Received on Tue 23 Nov 2010 07:43:29 PM CST
