I have the same concern -- taken to its logical concern, it's a little frightening.
I think authors are morally responsible for what they write -- I think they should be taken to task for unfair portrayals, and even sympathetic-but-clueless portrayals.
But I don't think it should ever transfer into outright censorship.
I described the scenario you mentioned in our class discussion tonight, using Being John Malkovich -- the scene where Malkovich enters his own head -- as an metaphor for the kind of writing we'd eventually wind up if we're all barred from trying to imagine each other's experiences.
I've often felt portrayals of gay men written by straights are pretty awful -- ranging from out-and-out hate literature to just run-of-the-mill clueless. But I feel the solution is more dialogue.
As for the reverse situation -- the one you describe, where I've felt a portrayal of me as a member of a dominant group by a minority writer didn't work -- there's an example of that at the beginning of Giovanni's Room. James Baldwin puts thoughts into the head of his white character that just don't work. But without the history of prejudice (as in the portrayals of gay men) the sting was gone -- it was just amusing, not irritating.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-15 06:49 pm (UTC)I think authors are morally responsible for what they write -- I think they should be taken to task for unfair portrayals, and even sympathetic-but-clueless portrayals.
But I don't think it should ever transfer into outright censorship.
I described the scenario you mentioned in our class discussion tonight, using Being John Malkovich -- the scene where Malkovich enters his own head -- as an metaphor for the kind of writing we'd eventually wind up if we're all barred from trying to imagine each other's experiences.
I've often felt portrayals of gay men written by straights are pretty awful -- ranging from out-and-out hate literature to just run-of-the-mill clueless. But I feel the solution is more dialogue.
As for the reverse situation -- the one you describe, where I've felt a portrayal of me as a member of a dominant group by a minority writer didn't work -- there's an example of that at the beginning of Giovanni's Room. James Baldwin puts thoughts into the head of his white character that just don't work. But without the history of prejudice (as in the portrayals of gay men) the sting was gone -- it was just amusing, not irritating.