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Re: Humor in Multicultural Literature
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From: Greg Leitich Smith <greg_at_gregleitichsmith.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:25:39 -0600
Yes, I probably should have clarified -- the cynsations post essentially summarizes the Reading the World speech Uma referred to in the article. It does seem strange and a little sad that we're still having to have this conversation...
On a substantive level, I think Uma makes a good point when she says " ormalizing the unfamiliar allows the reader to laugh with, rather than at, the character in such a story. It also implies that you don’t need to understand everything about a person in order to share a smile. By placing cultural markers in this way, the writer draws borders between cultures, and then makes them permeable, thereby giving the reader permission to laugh."
It may seem obvious but, from a writer standpoint, this also goes to building complete, believeable characters. Each of us has a sense of humor and to an extent, some of this is cultural (to this day, I'm often baffled by what my father, an immigrant from Romania and WWII refugee, finds funny) . Finding out what characters find normal or humorous or humorously normal can draw a bond between the reader and the character, especially if the reader comes to realize that the unfamiliar really isn't.
Greg
On 2/19/2013 4:52 PM, Uma wrote: And I want to say again, although I said it in the Horn Book article, that my thinking about the subject was sparked by a presentation that Greg and Cyn did at Reading the World back in 2005. Looking forward to this conversation.
Uma
-- Greg Leitich Smith CHRONAL ENGINE (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012) LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN (Roaring Brook/Macmillan 2014) http://www.gregleitichsmith.com http://www.greglsblog.blogspot.com
Received on Tue 19 Feb 2013 06:25:39 PM CST
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:25:39 -0600
Yes, I probably should have clarified -- the cynsations post essentially summarizes the Reading the World speech Uma referred to in the article. It does seem strange and a little sad that we're still having to have this conversation...
On a substantive level, I think Uma makes a good point when she says " ormalizing the unfamiliar allows the reader to laugh with, rather than at, the character in such a story. It also implies that you don’t need to understand everything about a person in order to share a smile. By placing cultural markers in this way, the writer draws borders between cultures, and then makes them permeable, thereby giving the reader permission to laugh."
It may seem obvious but, from a writer standpoint, this also goes to building complete, believeable characters. Each of us has a sense of humor and to an extent, some of this is cultural (to this day, I'm often baffled by what my father, an immigrant from Romania and WWII refugee, finds funny) . Finding out what characters find normal or humorous or humorously normal can draw a bond between the reader and the character, especially if the reader comes to realize that the unfamiliar really isn't.
Greg
On 2/19/2013 4:52 PM, Uma wrote: And I want to say again, although I said it in the Horn Book article, that my thinking about the subject was sparked by a presentation that Greg and Cyn did at Reading the World back in 2005. Looking forward to this conversation.
Uma
-- Greg Leitich Smith CHRONAL ENGINE (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012) LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN (Roaring Brook/Macmillan 2014) http://www.gregleitichsmith.com http://www.greglsblog.blogspot.com
Received on Tue 19 Feb 2013 06:25:39 PM CST
