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RE: Cultures and books as bridges OR If beautiful, not true, If true, not beautiful
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From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:53:40 -0500
Claudia,
Claudia, you hit on a lot of important points.
To leverage your comments, I think it gets even more granular. Many characters are both windows and mirrors in very complex ways. Othello (the play) and Othello (the Moor) is a window into an Elizabethan’s world view and a distant historical age but it is also a mirror to anyone who has ever made a bad and irreversible emotional decision based on ignorance and lack of trust. For sixteen generations, Othello has been a mirror, to which English audiences could relate, not because of his race, but because of his very human rashness.
I broadly agree with your final paragraph: we need more Othellos, if you will.
But I think the complexity of the goals that you describe raises the question of how and when they might be accomplished. To “encourage all children to see others simultaneously as unique individuals, people shaped by their culture, and people very like themselves, to see them as human equals, as living vibrant people rather than as objects set apart and preserved in textual artifacts as though they were in a museum under glass” actually strikes me as an objective for adults that happens to be true as well for children. How many adults could be described as functioning in that fashion, much less children?
While the goal might be a good, it is a lifetime goal, only the foundations of which can be laid in childhood and most of that will be through the experiences, behaviors and modeling of the parents rather than through the books children read. In addition, that goal has to be mapped onto the cognitive and psychological development of a child which is in turn often highly variable. I am not discounting the goal, merely saying that books are only a small part of that accomplishment, and even to the extent that they are, it is highly contingent on the individual child and context.
Read a lot, read enthusiastically, read broadly, read deeply, read venturously, read critically. I think those all constitute good counsel. But what that means for a particular child at a particular time under a particular set of circumstances is so wildly variant that I don’t think we can push much past those generic guidelines. I think we sometimes overload the process and try to achieve too much when achieving the basics (a child transitioning to adulthood reading a lot, reading enthusiastically, reading broadly, reading deeply, reading venturously, and reading critically) on its own is a seldom accomplished ideal.
Charles
From: Claudia Pearson [mailto:pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:14 PM To: 'CCBC-Net Network' Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Cultures and books as bridges OR If beautiful, not true, If true, not beautiful
Charles wrote:
"...What was interesting to me was the difference in the children’s reactions to the three types of books. Ready engagement with the City books, passing engagement with the Near Outback and virtually no engagement with the Remote books..."
Charles's email raises some questions for me, especially as it relates to the way children's publishing seems to depend on folklore and historical texts (whether fiction or fact) to introduce readers to others not like them.
We talk about having books with non-white characters on our bookshelves so that non-white children can see themselves in books, to offer them "mirrors." At the same time, we tend to expect nonwhite children to be able to identify with contemporary and futuristic white characters in fictional texts, to find the similarities between themselves and the characters which make these texts "mirrors" as well. We do not expect them to read these books for "windows" that will help them understand white culture and perceptions.
Conversely, we tend to offer books with non-white characters to white readers without assuming that the white reader should or could or would see himself or herself in those characters. Instead we offer these books as a way for white children to "put themselves in their shoes", as windows, not mirrors - subtly reinforcing them to adopt a positioning superior to the characters subjected to the reader's gaze.
Similarly, we encourage not just whites, but non-whites to look at folklore and historical texts as windows, as a way of remembering and understanding something in the past, to understand things that happened, not to anyone like them, but to people (and cultures) who are dead - a point that Debbie makes eloquently.
In my opinion, the debate about whether this or that text more accurately portrays the truth, or is a translation, or privileges one group's perspective over another ignores the most important issue surrounding the publication of more texts with realistic and relatable non-white characters. As several have already pointed out, while it is important to get the facts right and to honor distinctions that set cultures apart from one another, we need to offer more texts where non-whites are and should be perceived as mirrors, more contemporary stories and mysteries and fantasies and futuristic tales rather than more folklore and historical texts. We need to offer readers books that encourage all children to see others simultaneously as unique individuals, people shaped by their culture, and people very like themselves, to see them as human equals, as living vibrant people rather than as objects set apart and preserved in textual artifacts as though they were in a museum under glass.
Claudia Pearson
Claudia Pearson coRA SCBWI Southern Breeze Georgia - Alabama - Florida Panhandle pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net
Need a retreat? Check out the Hibbard Condos www.mtn-resorts.com/P213 www.mtn-resorts.com/P214 www.mtn-resorts.com/P215 www.mtn-resorts.com/P216 Special off-season discount for SCBWI members - email me!
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Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:53:40 -0500
Claudia,
Claudia, you hit on a lot of important points.
To leverage your comments, I think it gets even more granular. Many characters are both windows and mirrors in very complex ways. Othello (the play) and Othello (the Moor) is a window into an Elizabethan’s world view and a distant historical age but it is also a mirror to anyone who has ever made a bad and irreversible emotional decision based on ignorance and lack of trust. For sixteen generations, Othello has been a mirror, to which English audiences could relate, not because of his race, but because of his very human rashness.
I broadly agree with your final paragraph: we need more Othellos, if you will.
But I think the complexity of the goals that you describe raises the question of how and when they might be accomplished. To “encourage all children to see others simultaneously as unique individuals, people shaped by their culture, and people very like themselves, to see them as human equals, as living vibrant people rather than as objects set apart and preserved in textual artifacts as though they were in a museum under glass” actually strikes me as an objective for adults that happens to be true as well for children. How many adults could be described as functioning in that fashion, much less children?
While the goal might be a good, it is a lifetime goal, only the foundations of which can be laid in childhood and most of that will be through the experiences, behaviors and modeling of the parents rather than through the books children read. In addition, that goal has to be mapped onto the cognitive and psychological development of a child which is in turn often highly variable. I am not discounting the goal, merely saying that books are only a small part of that accomplishment, and even to the extent that they are, it is highly contingent on the individual child and context.
Read a lot, read enthusiastically, read broadly, read deeply, read venturously, read critically. I think those all constitute good counsel. But what that means for a particular child at a particular time under a particular set of circumstances is so wildly variant that I don’t think we can push much past those generic guidelines. I think we sometimes overload the process and try to achieve too much when achieving the basics (a child transitioning to adulthood reading a lot, reading enthusiastically, reading broadly, reading deeply, reading venturously, and reading critically) on its own is a seldom accomplished ideal.
Charles
From: Claudia Pearson [mailto:pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:14 PM To: 'CCBC-Net Network' Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Cultures and books as bridges OR If beautiful, not true, If true, not beautiful
Charles wrote:
"...What was interesting to me was the difference in the children’s reactions to the three types of books. Ready engagement with the City books, passing engagement with the Near Outback and virtually no engagement with the Remote books..."
Charles's email raises some questions for me, especially as it relates to the way children's publishing seems to depend on folklore and historical texts (whether fiction or fact) to introduce readers to others not like them.
We talk about having books with non-white characters on our bookshelves so that non-white children can see themselves in books, to offer them "mirrors." At the same time, we tend to expect nonwhite children to be able to identify with contemporary and futuristic white characters in fictional texts, to find the similarities between themselves and the characters which make these texts "mirrors" as well. We do not expect them to read these books for "windows" that will help them understand white culture and perceptions.
Conversely, we tend to offer books with non-white characters to white readers without assuming that the white reader should or could or would see himself or herself in those characters. Instead we offer these books as a way for white children to "put themselves in their shoes", as windows, not mirrors - subtly reinforcing them to adopt a positioning superior to the characters subjected to the reader's gaze.
Similarly, we encourage not just whites, but non-whites to look at folklore and historical texts as windows, as a way of remembering and understanding something in the past, to understand things that happened, not to anyone like them, but to people (and cultures) who are dead - a point that Debbie makes eloquently.
In my opinion, the debate about whether this or that text more accurately portrays the truth, or is a translation, or privileges one group's perspective over another ignores the most important issue surrounding the publication of more texts with realistic and relatable non-white characters. As several have already pointed out, while it is important to get the facts right and to honor distinctions that set cultures apart from one another, we need to offer more texts where non-whites are and should be perceived as mirrors, more contemporary stories and mysteries and fantasies and futuristic tales rather than more folklore and historical texts. We need to offer readers books that encourage all children to see others simultaneously as unique individuals, people shaped by their culture, and people very like themselves, to see them as human equals, as living vibrant people rather than as objects set apart and preserved in textual artifacts as though they were in a museum under glass.
Claudia Pearson
Claudia Pearson coRA SCBWI Southern Breeze Georgia - Alabama - Florida Panhandle pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net
Need a retreat? Check out the Hibbard Condos www.mtn-resorts.com/P213 www.mtn-resorts.com/P214 www.mtn-resorts.com/P215 www.mtn-resorts.com/P216 Special off-season discount for SCBWI members - email me!
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Received on Thu 27 Feb 2014 04:54:56 PM CST
