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Re: Muslims and Muslim Cultures-accuracy
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From: Sharat Buddhavarapu <SBuddhavarapu_at_politics-prose.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:41:44 +0000
First of all, I'd like to thank all the participants who've suggested titles they think less problematic thanThe Day of Ahmed's Secret. I'm taking notes and will be discussing those title with our store's bookbuyer. As to the discussion, I'd like to address some points I was having trouble with. Seemi's first post was pretty comprehensive so I'll respond to a few criticisms in it. Seemi says, "The biggest problem with Ahmad's Secret are the concepts of poverty, child labor, and illiteracy," but given the statistics we have (mine are from the Library of Congress), illiteracy among children in Egypt is particularly high. The family depicted is not necessarily poor, they're what I'd call working class. I'll pass on child labor because I have no knowledge of that issue as it pertains to Egypt. Further on in your message, I find that the problem of "secrets" and the exotic Other of Orientalism seem not to be the issue here. Unless you want to criticize the trope of children who like keeping secrets from their parents that seems to be besides the fact of diverse representation. Having said all that, the use of the historicized past as present day is very troubling and I can only agree with everyone's comments on that.
As to the specifics of what kind of accuracy we should ask of authors writing outside their own identity, I think the distinction I'd like to make is that the author's imagination is what should be accurately inspired, rather than the story itself. Any culture or subculture deserves the author's thorough attention: to the social, economic, and political realities that shape their lives. But in service of good story, as with Hemingway's iceberg theory, that is only the beginning of the process of building the world for the story. The author needn't be factual (i.e. stuck to depicting strictly real-world situations), but must understand and respect the political implications of each story or illustration choice they make. That allows not only for creativity, but for the space between fantasy and reality that all children's books seem to inhabit.
Sharat Buddhavarapu
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Received on Tue 19 Aug 2014 03:42:16 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:41:44 +0000
First of all, I'd like to thank all the participants who've suggested titles they think less problematic thanThe Day of Ahmed's Secret. I'm taking notes and will be discussing those title with our store's bookbuyer. As to the discussion, I'd like to address some points I was having trouble with. Seemi's first post was pretty comprehensive so I'll respond to a few criticisms in it. Seemi says, "The biggest problem with Ahmad's Secret are the concepts of poverty, child labor, and illiteracy," but given the statistics we have (mine are from the Library of Congress), illiteracy among children in Egypt is particularly high. The family depicted is not necessarily poor, they're what I'd call working class. I'll pass on child labor because I have no knowledge of that issue as it pertains to Egypt. Further on in your message, I find that the problem of "secrets" and the exotic Other of Orientalism seem not to be the issue here. Unless you want to criticize the trope of children who like keeping secrets from their parents that seems to be besides the fact of diverse representation. Having said all that, the use of the historicized past as present day is very troubling and I can only agree with everyone's comments on that.
As to the specifics of what kind of accuracy we should ask of authors writing outside their own identity, I think the distinction I'd like to make is that the author's imagination is what should be accurately inspired, rather than the story itself. Any culture or subculture deserves the author's thorough attention: to the social, economic, and political realities that shape their lives. But in service of good story, as with Hemingway's iceberg theory, that is only the beginning of the process of building the world for the story. The author needn't be factual (i.e. stuck to depicting strictly real-world situations), but must understand and respect the political implications of each story or illustration choice they make. That allows not only for creativity, but for the space between fantasy and reality that all children's books seem to inhabit.
Sharat Buddhavarapu
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Received on Tue 19 Aug 2014 03:42:16 PM CDT
