Stories matter. Many stories matter. | Just Reflections - Issue #1
This week I watched a video on How to motivate yourself to write every day on Diane Calahan's YouTube channel. On it, she quotes this from the novelist Aminatta Forna.
"Don't just write what you know, also write what you want to understand. Write from a place of deep curiosity about the world." ~ Aminatta Forna
You can replace 'write' with your favourite creative pursuit. I thought this was really intriguing and got curious about where it came from which led me to an article where various novelists, including Aminatta, share their thoughts on cultural appropriation in fiction. I found Hari Kunzru's ideas particularly thought-provoking, here's part of what he says.
"Good writers transgress without transgressing, in part because they are humble about what they do not know. They treat their own experience of the world as provisional. They do not presume. They respect people, not by leaving them alone in the inviolability of their cultural authenticity, but by becoming involved with them." ~ Hari Kunzru
"Attempting to think one’s way into other subjectivities, other experiences, is an act of ethical urgency." ~ Hari Kunzru
My interpretation of what he's saying is that people's cultural authenticity isn't violated when someone who's not of their culture writes about them. On the contrary, when done right, writers can do great good when they get involved with people's cultures and write about them and tell their stories as opposed to just leaving them alone and unknown.
I said, "when done right" intentionally here because just writing about a people is not enough. I think Kamila Shamsie sums it well.
"... if you ... start with an attitude that fails to understand that there are very powerful reasons for people to dispute your right to tell a story – reasons that stem from historical, political or social imbalances, you’ve already failed to understand the place and people who you purport to want to write about." ~ Kamila Shamsie
It's quite malicious when writers, perhaps with an agenda, misrepresent cultures in their writing and fail to put in the work required to understand the people they are attempting to depict. Many minorities can relate to this very well and Aminatta Forna points it out in the article:
"People who belong to minority groups have had to live with limiting, irritating and insulting portrayals all our lives, as well as always dying before the end of the movie. I have thrown aside many modern novels because a white writer’s purpose in including a character of colour has been merely to make a point about race or reflect a white character’s value system. It’s bad writing, plain and simple." ~ Aminatta Forna
On March 27th 1973, Marlon Brando sent Apache and Yaqui actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather to reject his Oscar for best actor on "The Godfather" on his behalf stating his reason for declining film's most prestigious award as "the movie industry's continued misrepresentation of native American people in film." Commenting on Littlefeather's appearance at the awards show, he wrote:
"Perhaps at this moment, you are saying to yourself what the hell has all this got to do with the Academy Awards? Why is this woman standing up here, ruining our evening, invading our lives with things that don't concern us, and that we don't care about? I think the answer to those unspoken questions is that the motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing hi[m] as savage, hostile and evil. It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know." ~ Marlon Brando
As you can see, it's not just hurtful, it can also be destructive. We all certainly need stories that represent us, but more importantly, we need stories that represent us correctly. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie brilliantly articulates "The danger of the single story" in her TED talk and I think these two quotes sum up her point well.
"So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become. ... Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story." ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar. Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Our personal experience of the world is just one story. Many of us struggle to fully empathize with the experiences of others without the filter of our own identity and ego. Exposing ourselves to the intricacies of other people's lives affords us the humility to realise that the world is much bigger than us, to remain open to seeing the world from other people's perspectives. Doing this will expand us.
Finally, I will end with the words of Nicki Minaj who sums up all of this really well.
"If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle ... then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us; what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn't not want to know that." ~ Nicki Minaj
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
That's all I have for you this week. If you like the newsletter consider sharing it with others on Twitter, WhatsApp or Facebook.
I hope I've given you something to think about this week and I wish you ever-increasing curiosity.
Until next week.
BK
Whose life is it anyway? Novelists have their say on cultural appropriation | Books | The Guardian
Bonus: Check out this video by T1J, a YouTuber who always challenges my thinking, where he gives his two cents about cultural appropriation. Enjoy!