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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 22:14:56 -0500
Fabulous…thank you…Norma Jean
On Feb 21, 2014, at 9:41 PM, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote:
>
> Norma,
>
> What you say about Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer reminds of a quote from one of my favorite novels. Atticus says to his daughter: "[I]f you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Some people are better at empathy than others.
>
>
>
> Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian
> http://www.sully-writer.com
> http://sullywriter.wordpress.com
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] This goes back to discussion perhaps before Tim
> Tingle
> From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
> Date: Fri, February 21, 2014 9:24 pm
> To: Barbara Binns <bab9660_at_yahoo.com>
> Cc: Regina Pauly <paulyr_at_uwplatt.edu>, CCBC Network
> <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu>
>
>
> 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
>>
>>
>>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 22:14:56 -0500
Fabulous…thank you…Norma Jean
On Feb 21, 2014, at 9:41 PM, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote:
>
> Norma,
>
> What you say about Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer reminds of a quote from one of my favorite novels. Atticus says to his daughter: "[I]f you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Some people are better at empathy than others.
>
>
>
> Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian
> http://www.sully-writer.com
> http://sullywriter.wordpress.com
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] This goes back to discussion perhaps before Tim
> Tingle
> From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
> Date: Fri, February 21, 2014 9:24 pm
> To: Barbara Binns <bab9660_at_yahoo.com>
> Cc: Regina Pauly <paulyr_at_uwplatt.edu>, CCBC Network
> <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu>
>
>
> 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
>>
>>
>>
---
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Received on Fri 21 Feb 2014 09:15:45 PM CST
