An It's Complicated! — Authentic Voices guest post by author, Patricia McCormick.
When authors try to write about experiences far outside our own, we
run a number of risks. We’ll be accused of getting it wrong, of slumming
in someone else’s pain or, worst of all, of being insensitive or
patronizing. But for me, it’s only through trying on the experience of
another human being that I’m able to recognize the limits of my
imagination – and, more importantly, my unconscious biases.
For instance, in Sold,
a novel based on my interviews with young Indian and Nepali women who
were sold into prostitution, I chose to include a white American
character. He is a photographer, based on the real-life activist who
introduced me to the issue of human trafficking. It was a thank-you to
that young man. But the inclusion of an American character was also a
way to give my primary audience a character with whom they could
identify.
Some readers criticized the book for repeating
the myth of the noble white American rescuer in the land of savages.
And upon reflection, I have to plead guilty. If I were to write the
book over again, I’d probably base the ‘rescuer’ on the women in India
and Nepal who are fighting trafficking. Or on the male police officers
now doing that work.
My most recent book, Never Fall Down,
about a boy who survived the genocide in Cambodia by playing music, is
based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond. Arn is now a very
accomplished man with a college degree. But when he speaks about the
genocide, it’s almost as if he becomes that terrified young refugee all
over again. Trying to capture that voice was like trying to bottle a
lightning bug. When I imposed standard grammar and syntax on it, the
light went out. So I chose to mimic that voice in the book.
Some
readers complained that the voice was hard to get used to. Some said it
was ‘pidgin English,’ a criticism that implies that those who speak
non-standard English are somehow intellectually inferior.
But
to me, Arn’s voice had a kind of poetry. If anything, it conveyed his
keen intelligence, his heart and his humor more than the King’s English
ever could. And most readers have said that it’s that voice – that
innocent, terrified, lively, funny, lyrical voice – that gets them
through the worst of the story.
The danger there was even
greater because it risked reducing a real person to a stereotype. But in
the end, I think it brought readers closer to him.
I’m
currently working on a story about a Haitian girl who lit the spark
that ignited the only successful slave revolution in recorded history.
As a white woman, I run the risk of getting it wrong, perhaps in ways
that a Haitian author might not. But it’s an idea that sprang from my
imagination, and something about this story of defiance speaks to me.
It’s
a risk, writing outside one’s own racial, socio-economic, gender or
ethnic experience. I try to be mindful of criticism of my earlier work;
those responses help keep me honest. But the limitations of my own
experience pretty much guarantee that I’ll make a mistake somewhere
along the way.
In my view, though, it’s precisely by
taking those risks – and making mistakes -- that we become aware of our
blind spots. It’s only when we inhabit someone else’s experience, we see
our limitations and biases. And it’s only in stretching the limits of
our empathy and imagination that we are able to find what’s universal.
Patricia McCormick, a two-time National Book Award finalist, is the author of five critically acclaimed novels – Never Fall Down, a novel based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia by playing music; Purple Heart, a suspenseful psychological novel that explores the killing of a 10-year-old boy in Iraq; Sold, a deeply moving account of sexual trafficking; My Brother’s Keeper, a realistic view of teenage substance abuse; and Cut, an intimate portrait of one girl’s struggle with self-injury.
Fantastic post. Thank you for it!
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot to actually listen to criticism in this culture who is so quick to judge and who bludgeons others for sport. It takes some magnanimity to be able to listen, sift through and say "lesson learned." Respect to you, Patricia McCormick - this is what makes your books amazing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your insight, Patty. This is a fantastic and eye-opening post!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your insight, Patty. This is a fantastic and eye-opening post!
ReplyDeleteI love this. And it reminds me of a quote I saw recently that basically said that, as a writer, if you are avoiding writing diverse characters because you are "afraid of getting it wrong" the net result is still less books on the shelf for the full scope of readers. You may be doing it out of fear instead of prejudice, but the result is the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting and for being brave enough to keep writing books that challenge you and your readers.
Dana Alison Levy
Thank you for this. It makes me braver in my own work.
ReplyDeleteHi, Patricia,
ReplyDeleteSo appreciative of your beautiful writing and the risks you're willing to take, all of which I've enjoyed following since we met on the Veterans and Survivors March to New Orleans.
I particularly love your acceptance that mistakes are part of the bargain. How much farther we'll all move forward when we see mistakes as part of the growth process, a reason to be humble, but never a reason not to act.
May you continue to follow your brave heart.
Annie
I love this post, P. M.
ReplyDelete