tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post2966881703367284856..comments2024-03-27T14:08:51.191-05:00Comments on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL): GONE WITH THE WIND in Martina Boone's COMPULSIONDebbie Reesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14972409006633565859noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-9630437720197251542018-12-21T21:36:03.669-06:002018-12-21T21:36:03.669-06:00And furthermore...this whole "acceptance"...And furthermore...this whole "acceptance" narrative is also used in (yikes!) <i>The Cay</i> by Theodore Taylor (1969), <i>The Slave Dancer</i> by Paula Fox (1973), <i>The Trouble with Donovan Croft</i> by Bernard Ashley (1974), <i>My Mate Shofiq</i> by Jan Needle (1978), and even <i>The Black Witch</i> by Laurie Forest (2017!).<br />I wonder if there be any twists on this narrative, where the protagonist is not only a Villain Protagonist, but also a Politically Incorrect Villain, and preferably a sadist to boot, so that everyone will know they're evil.<br />I've also noticed that the "acceptance" narrative can sometimes seem like a metaphor of white fragility--well, to me, at least. You see, that narrative has non-white readers endure a <i>lot</i> of white folks' racist Wangst for a <i>loooong</i> while. And as James Joyce wrote, white fragility is the average white man doing this:<br />"...moaning feebly, in monkmarian monotheme, but tarned long and then a nation louder, while engaged in swallowing from a large ampullar, that his pawdry's purgatory was more than a n***er bloke could bear, hemiparalysed by the tong warfare and all the shemozzle, (Daily Maily, fullup Lace! Holy Maly, Mothelup Joss!) his cheeks and trousers changing colour every time a gat croaked. How is that for low, laities and gentlenuns? Why, dog of the Crostiguns, whole continents rang with this Kairokorran lowness!...But would anyone, short of a madhouse, believe it? Neither of those clean little cherubum, Nero or Nobookisonester [Nebuchadnezzar] himself, ever nursed such a spoiled opinion of his monstrous marvellosity as did this mental and moral defective (here perhaps at the vanessance of his lownest)".<br />Joyce couldn't have written it better. So, writers, <i><b>never</b></i> cry or whine that you have it worse than any non-white readers who are going to suffer through your work, even if you feel unfairly treated.Sam Jonsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037969317578064759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-28168891336739125642018-12-11T17:04:04.148-06:002018-12-11T17:04:04.148-06:00Speaking of which...I think these kinds of books a...Speaking of which...I think these kinds of books are called "'acceptance' narratives". The problem with these books is not that they have main characters who start out bigots, but that they never ever show any of the oppressed characters' opinions (especially about all this bigotry!). They also have a tendency to make some people more bigoted. See <a href="http://www.gayya.org/2015/09/the-acceptance-narrative-in-trans-ya/" rel="nofollow">this post</a> at YA Pride.<br /><br />And something else...the earliest example (that I know of) of a book with such a narrative is <i>The Courage of Sarah Noble</i>, published in 1954. See <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040610235522/http://oyate.org:80/books-to-avoid/courage.html" rel="nofollow">this review</a> and <a href="www.oyate.org/index.php/resources/45-resources/living-stories#parent-story" rel="nofollow">this story</a> for why it's so damaging.Sam Jonsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037969317578064759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-34838375858626276092015-06-20T07:31:20.395-05:002015-06-20T07:31:20.395-05:00One irony about Margaret Mitchell's novel, &qu...One irony about Margaret Mitchell's novel, "Gone With the Wind" is that one of the goals of the novel is to dispel the romanticism about the antebellum South. <br /><br />Unfortunately, Hollywood undid her work. As the writer Catherine Hyde said, She hopes many writers get the misfortune of Hollywood making a movie of their book. The writer gets the boost, but the story is invariably warped. <br /><br />You need to be cautious assigning the evil of this young man to any group of people. There is a certain percentage of saints, evil doers and most people in a continuum in between. <br /> <br /><br />Ann Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17759967601352382204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-57227747690701264562015-06-19T17:10:43.090-05:002015-06-19T17:10:43.090-05:00I was similarly shocked when I read "I Lived ...I was similarly shocked when I read "I Lived on Butterfly Hill" by Marjorie Agosín which won the Pura Belpré Award. The book is beautifully written and exposes the horrors of the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile through the eyes of a young girl. (Although nothing is said about the U.S. role -- a major, problematic omission.) For safety, the protagonist comes to the U.S. after her parents are disappeared in Chile. What does she watch with her aunt? Gone With The Wind. And, with NO critique. Of all the films the author could have selected -- why that one? This is the reason we have not added "I Lived on Butterfly Hill" to any of our recommended lists, despite its many good qualities and important topic. What most shocked me is that I had heard the book recommended for months before I read it and not one reference or critique of the inclusion of GWTW. That is actually the most troubling part.Deborah Menkarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01688851742052653903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-55803047791332890562015-06-19T17:03:15.771-05:002015-06-19T17:03:15.771-05:00Debbie, thank you so much for this post. It really...Debbie, thank you so much for this post. It really captures the experience of having to wonder whether the author is going to be responsible or not. I find the idea of a reader -- particularly a child -- having to wait to see herself humanized an inherently problematic one. Yes, it might accurately reflect the inner journey many white people take, but isn't the point that our dehumanizing views were always wrong? And therefore, why go back and re-live them? Such ruminations could definitely be appropriate in an all-white anti-racist group, in which the point is for white people to educate each other, but any child can pick up a book, and be hurt--or validated--by what's inside. Asking marginalized readers to "wait" to be validated is an example of white dominance as perpetuated by well-intentioned white folks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-8242150718330785312015-06-19T16:13:03.391-05:002015-06-19T16:13:03.391-05:00I'm happy you're reading this book Debbie ...I'm happy you're reading this book Debbie as I was eager to hear your thoughts and will be watching for your later posts. <br /><br />I think you bring up a great point here. A lot of "classic" titles are deeply problematic and even if they are still read/loved/discussed it's important to also remember the complicated history behind such titles and couch discussion of them in appropriate terms. I thought the subversive treatment of Gone with the Wind here was positive and didn't think long enough about it to pick up the potential negative connotations--now I do wish there had been a more extended discussion or a different play was chosen altogether.<br /><br />As we discussed on Twitter the idea of whether to be patient and wait for the payoff (enlightenment) with characters in the final book of a series is also something worth considering. I always prefer books in a series to function as individual books first and pieces of a whole second. Something that feels doubly true for situations involving character development and growth.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-44878741278242628712015-06-19T13:14:13.860-05:002015-06-19T13:14:13.860-05:00So we're not supposed to read or watch or admi...So we're not supposed to read or watch or admit to enjoying books/movies from the past that would now be deemed "inappropriate"? Should we just get rid of all those books that now offend people? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com