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Stories so White


Carlos Hazday

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Fascinating article about an author rewriting her first book after a barrage of negative Tweets.

 

The over-the-top reactions by some of her fans don't surprise me. An idiot on GA lambasted me when I had the chutzpah to call out an author he liked. He claimed she was trying. Well, if she was trying then she would have appreciated my telling her what she wrote was crap. She did. And she earned my respect by acknowledging she didn't have any knowledge of what she was writing about and asking for help.

 

I'm a firm believer in honesty when reviewing. There are a handful of GA authors I don't bother with because they seem to whine whenever anyone says anything about their work that isn't absolute praise. Keira Drake seems to be the type to pay attention to what readers say even if it's not laudatory. Unless as authors we're willing to listen to what others find wrong with our work, we'll never improve. Maybe I'm weird, but I'd rather hear how something I wrote doesn't make sense so I can improve.

 

So, what do y'all think?

 

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/keira-drake-the-continent.html

 

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I was mostly talking about pointing out errors, C.  No, in a review you can say this was slow moving, or characters were one dimensional, for example. i'm good with that. 

Edited by Mikiesboy
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My writing is far from perfect, but I do the best I can. I am often quite severe with my own work, more so than my editor. Though I recognise when he gives me polite, reserved comments, those are a wake-up call to go back to the text with a machete. ;)  If I do get negative comments from other people, my first response is defensive. But then I think, let the comments seep in, and usually I come round to agreeing to the points made.

 

As to 'whiteness'. Yes, my main characters are white. But those that take place in urban locations do have some non-white characters, if only in passing. African heritage, Indian  / Pakistani heritage are as far as I've ventured. 

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Based on the article, the problem was she created a world where groups of people resembled stereotypes of cultural groups. 

 

Not every story has to carry a diverse cast, It depends on the place and time it's set in. Some of us may on purpose use multi-ethnic or multi-cultural approach on purpose. For me, it come out of being a member of several minorities and growing up in that type of an environment. My high school was an almost perfect split: 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 Hispanic (mostly Caucasian) I try to write about what I know as much as possible.

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There are two topics here: giving/receiving criticism and racism, and perhaps a third about acceptance; accepting viewpoints you disagree with, allowing free expression.


Regarding the first, there is some hypocrisy by authors, a number of whom like mutual appreciation and do not take criticism and bad reviews very well. There exists the phenomenon that the referenced book and author experienced, namely a clubbing together to destroy anyone with opposing views, to suppress those views and eradicate negative comments and or reviews.


On racism, there is a big difference regarding America, Australia, and Europe. The USA is a country fabricated by diverse populations of mixed race from many parts of the world, with a minority of indigenous people. Australia is emerging from a history of racism where its indigenous people were treated as second class citizens. Europe has racism which varies in its apparition from country to country. 


British cities are largely multi-cultural, however a prime reason for Brexit was a reaction against mass immigration from countries like Poland. A racism against white people that brought their language and culture with them, to which the reaction was “Why don’t you speak English or go back where you came from.” In France, black people are called black, not people of colour, there is racism against people from those previously colonized countries, blacks and Arabs (North Africans). Go to Spain, and walk around the capital Madrid, and you are very unlikely to see a black person, they keep in the background, out of sight. I was on the metro when people actually commented, “We can breathe now the “nigger's” got off.” Spain and Italy are very racist regarding black people. I have not began to talk about Roms and gypsies or anti-Semitism.


As for the author and her book, I can only comment that she was very naive, and blatant stupidity, “I didn't realise until it was pointed out,” is not an excuse. But as I stated previously, I abhor the bullying culture that would burry a person beneath a barrage of negative comments making a campaign to destroy the author, even to the point of attempting to get her editor/publisher to drop her.
 

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