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Re: This goes back to discussion perhaps before Tim Tingle
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From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 21:24:29 -0500
On Feb 21, 2014, at 9:21 PM, Norma Jean Sawicki wrote:
> When Paula Fox, a gifted white writer, was awarded the 1974 Newbery Medal for The Slave Dancer, some black folk protested…it was loud, it was ugly. Had it not been for the late Augusta Baker, the extraordinary black librarian who headed children's services at the NYPL, I don't know how the N/C dinner would have gone, given the threats of demonstrations, pickets, etc. Augusta, had national prominence and between the announcement in January and the dinner at ALA in June she defended the novel and Paula's right to write it both publicly and behind the scenes…she also worked to cool tempers and pointed out that there was a core group interested in pumping up the volume…it was what they did…almost full time. I no longer have a copy of Paula's acceptance speech but it can no doubt be found for whose who are interested…it would be well worth reading.
>
> To suggest directly or indirectly that a writer outside a culture cannot write a fabulous book about that culture is to suggest humankind is capable of having compassion and empathy for only one's own group. Somerset Maugham did not have a club foot but who can read Of Human Bondage and not be moved by Philip Carey? Some writers have a profound understanding of pain, bigotry because of their own lives and sometimes draw from it to write about others…people of a different culture, people with disabilities, etc. There is a great responsibly to research, to get the facts straight, to talk to folk in that group, etc…….
>
> When President Obama was a candidate , there were many in the African American community who said he was not black….Norma Jean
>
>
>
> On Feb 21, 2014, at 8:19 PM, Barbara Binns wrote:
>
>> Regina, I understand your comment, and part of me wants to agree. But the rest of me deals with reality. Yes, authors can (and do) write outside their group. And sometimes it works well, especially when the author is willing to do the research and get into the subjects and subject matter. But, and it's a big but, too often they create an incorrect picture. For an outsider,getting things wrong is easy. I have seen that first hand. Especially with the current media, TV, Movies, News, and other books, providing bad data as a starting point.
>>
>> During this discussion some of my thoughts circled around whether it is worse for a group to be invisible or to be visible but have their image distorted. As an African American woman I have seen things in books about my people that made me cringe and others where I just shook my head and laughed. Meanwhile the white authors are lauded for their insight orfor their courage in tackling the subject. I've seen them truely believe they got things, feelings, emotions, right or say they were simply exercising artistic freedom.
>>
>> I think different people can understand each other, but as my friends and I say, there is understanding, and then there is UNDERSTANDING. I remember a joke about someone moving into a small New England town and feeling they should be considered natives after a decade. They were told that their kids might get that distinction some day, but they never could no matter how long they lived because they would never really understand the life. It was a joke, I laughed. But it does make me think about what it takes to really understand a different lifestyle. It would just be too easy for me to get things wrong and then never even know I was wrong.
>>
>> Would I include an "other" in any of my books? Of course I would and I do. My books deal with a multi-cultural present day world. But I don't try to tell someone else's underlying story, their pain and triumph. I fear walking a mile in their shoes would only be a start to trying to get that right. If I really wanted to do that I would seek out someone with that insider knowledge to collaborate with. In the meantime, if I can do enough to rouse a reader's interest and get them to look at something that had been invisible to them before, and maybe find an author who could tell the story with UNDERSTANDING, that's a good thing.
>>
>> Barbara Binns w/a B. A. Binns
>> 2010 National Readers Choice Award Winner
>> 2012 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
>> 2012-13 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award Nominee
>> Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men
>> website - http://www.babinns.com facebook.com/allthecolorsoflove
>>
>>
>> On Friday, February 21, 2014 4:14 PM, Regina Pauly <paulyr_at_uwplatt.edu> wrote:
>> In reading this discussion I am bothered by the assumption that I cannot understand the other. While it is true that I may never fully understand any human being (and this might even include myself), we all think and write about things we can only imagine. Otherwise all stories would only have one ethnicity, with one gender and only ages that we have reached and only people at our socioeconomic level. I'd like to give humans a little more credit. We are terrible people, who have done terrible things, but we are also great people who have done great things. Let's hope we can all empathize with the other and learn from each other and share our experiences, and the experiences of others. Isn't this what literature does? I feel this discussion is saying it can only be one way, but I feel I can know something without having experienced it firsthand.
>>
>> Regina Pauly
>> Curriculum Librarian
>> University of Wisconsin - Platteville
>> 1 University Plaza
>> Platteville, WI 53818
>> 608-342-1099
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 21:24:29 -0500
On Feb 21, 2014, at 9:21 PM, Norma Jean Sawicki wrote:
> When Paula Fox, a gifted white writer, was awarded the 1974 Newbery Medal for The Slave Dancer, some black folk protested…it was loud, it was ugly. Had it not been for the late Augusta Baker, the extraordinary black librarian who headed children's services at the NYPL, I don't know how the N/C dinner would have gone, given the threats of demonstrations, pickets, etc. Augusta, had national prominence and between the announcement in January and the dinner at ALA in June she defended the novel and Paula's right to write it both publicly and behind the scenes…she also worked to cool tempers and pointed out that there was a core group interested in pumping up the volume…it was what they did…almost full time. I no longer have a copy of Paula's acceptance speech but it can no doubt be found for whose who are interested…it would be well worth reading.
>
> To suggest directly or indirectly that a writer outside a culture cannot write a fabulous book about that culture is to suggest humankind is capable of having compassion and empathy for only one's own group. Somerset Maugham did not have a club foot but who can read Of Human Bondage and not be moved by Philip Carey? Some writers have a profound understanding of pain, bigotry because of their own lives and sometimes draw from it to write about others…people of a different culture, people with disabilities, etc. There is a great responsibly to research, to get the facts straight, to talk to folk in that group, etc…….
>
> When President Obama was a candidate , there were many in the African American community who said he was not black….Norma Jean
>
>
>
> On Feb 21, 2014, at 8:19 PM, Barbara Binns wrote:
>
>> Regina, I understand your comment, and part of me wants to agree. But the rest of me deals with reality. Yes, authors can (and do) write outside their group. And sometimes it works well, especially when the author is willing to do the research and get into the subjects and subject matter. But, and it's a big but, too often they create an incorrect picture. For an outsider,getting things wrong is easy. I have seen that first hand. Especially with the current media, TV, Movies, News, and other books, providing bad data as a starting point.
>>
>> During this discussion some of my thoughts circled around whether it is worse for a group to be invisible or to be visible but have their image distorted. As an African American woman I have seen things in books about my people that made me cringe and others where I just shook my head and laughed. Meanwhile the white authors are lauded for their insight orfor their courage in tackling the subject. I've seen them truely believe they got things, feelings, emotions, right or say they were simply exercising artistic freedom.
>>
>> I think different people can understand each other, but as my friends and I say, there is understanding, and then there is UNDERSTANDING. I remember a joke about someone moving into a small New England town and feeling they should be considered natives after a decade. They were told that their kids might get that distinction some day, but they never could no matter how long they lived because they would never really understand the life. It was a joke, I laughed. But it does make me think about what it takes to really understand a different lifestyle. It would just be too easy for me to get things wrong and then never even know I was wrong.
>>
>> Would I include an "other" in any of my books? Of course I would and I do. My books deal with a multi-cultural present day world. But I don't try to tell someone else's underlying story, their pain and triumph. I fear walking a mile in their shoes would only be a start to trying to get that right. If I really wanted to do that I would seek out someone with that insider knowledge to collaborate with. In the meantime, if I can do enough to rouse a reader's interest and get them to look at something that had been invisible to them before, and maybe find an author who could tell the story with UNDERSTANDING, that's a good thing.
>>
>> Barbara Binns w/a B. A. Binns
>> 2010 National Readers Choice Award Winner
>> 2012 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
>> 2012-13 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award Nominee
>> Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men
>> website - http://www.babinns.com facebook.com/allthecolorsoflove
>>
>>
>> On Friday, February 21, 2014 4:14 PM, Regina Pauly <paulyr_at_uwplatt.edu> wrote:
>> In reading this discussion I am bothered by the assumption that I cannot understand the other. While it is true that I may never fully understand any human being (and this might even include myself), we all think and write about things we can only imagine. Otherwise all stories would only have one ethnicity, with one gender and only ages that we have reached and only people at our socioeconomic level. I'd like to give humans a little more credit. We are terrible people, who have done terrible things, but we are also great people who have done great things. Let's hope we can all empathize with the other and learn from each other and share our experiences, and the experiences of others. Isn't this what literature does? I feel this discussion is saying it can only be one way, but I feel I can know something without having experienced it firsthand.
>>
>> Regina Pauly
>> Curriculum Librarian
>> University of Wisconsin - Platteville
>> 1 University Plaza
>> Platteville, WI 53818
>> 608-342-1099
---
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Received on Fri 21 Feb 2014 08:24:58 PM CST
