Strong words from Victor Lavalle- I once read with him in Brooklyn and enjoyed talking to him as well as loved his short story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus, that I read after meeting him that night. Click on the text for a link to the whole interview. (Thanks, Maud Newton).
"But imagine if Oe's courageous nakedness were universal. Black writers might stop making careers out of self-righteousness and white prejudice. White guys might stop hiding behind their encyclopedic knowledge and grapple with their lack of humility. Immigrant writers might stop moaning about how hard it was for their parents to become Americans. White women might finally cut their poor mothers a little slack.
In place of these shopworn scenarios, what if white folks wrote honestly about white racism? (Because I could do with a lot less about white racism from everyone else.) Imagine black writers addressing black cruelty and sanctimoniousness, or Asian writers really coming to terms with Asian materialism."
No comments:
Post a Comment