The other day I ran into Rona.*
*(name changed)
Rona was a girl I knew in one of my children’s classes. Rona
has changed a lot. Rona is now going by Ron. They are transitioning.
I wish them well. People seek their authentic selves all
their lives, and there are many ways to that. But something occurred to me
right then and there. There is nothing
inside my being that has insight into this particular transition.
Oh, sure. Like most humans, there were parts of my physic
that I wished were different at various times, though this has lessened greatly
as I gained in years. Who hasn’t wanted a different nose/eye color/height or whatever?
But the feeling of being in the wrong body was never one I had.
Which brought another insight: I could never write such a
fictional character from the inside. I could and would write characters who are
very different from me, but only as secondary characters, the way a main
character whose inner world is one I know intimately, experiences them. We encounter and appreciate many people as we live, and my main characters will also. But it is the inner world, or point of view, (POV) that will remain someone I can vouch for.
This means that a black/Asian/Muslim/Trans character will
not be the POV (first person or third person personal) for a story I
will write. I’m guessing this is what the cry about cultural appropriation in
fiction is about, and to that extent, I understand it.
But I do not begrudge any writer of fiction who does attempt
this, because here also we must allow others to tackle what they feel strongly
about. If they do so convincingly, that’s just fine with me.
And, in the end, there is no end to appropriation in
fiction: main characters who are male written by female writers, (and vice
versa) or a story taking place at a time so long ago the writer couldn’t have
lived it except in their mind. It’s fiction.
I just don’t think I could do it well, so I will strive to appreciate
but not appropriate.
©Luis Rodriguez 2018
Definitely a fine line for an author to navigate.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I could never write about some people because I could never truly understand to write from the inside. But this is why it's so important to study what one is interested in and loves, so that we can write authentically, otherwise we'll all be stuck writing memoir.
ReplyDeleteIt's a difficult topic, but I agree with what you've said. Our variety in literature would be sadly limited if authors only wrote about what they'd personally experienced.
ReplyDeleteNavigation is the ever present challenge of storytellers. Nothing easy about it.
ReplyDelete