by matttbastard
Ok, so I missed the midweek linkfarm–my apologies once again. Feel free to sock it to me one time in comments. Oh, and go show the one Melissa M. some love–that teaspoon don’t shine itself, dig?
Stageleft: Affirmativ…

Of course the whole association of ‘mixed’ and ‘confused’ is a bunch of annoying BS that ‘monoracial’ (heh) folks on all sides perpetuate.

Not just monoracials (are there really any of those among non-recent-immigrant Americans? I think we all like to boink the exotic a little too much for that…). I’ve heard the same crap from my own “mixed and confused” family all my life. No different from women who scuttle feminist efforts and black racists (yes, I said racists) like Ward Connerly and Clarence Thomas; it’s all part of the same self-perpetuating system.

I’m not sure I agree with the idea that “The personal history of the author is tangential at best.”, though. There’s no way we can un-know who wrote the Tell-Tale Heart. It affects us when we read. White writers writing Black dialect are doing something different than Black writers doing the same thing. Texts always exist in a context, and author bio is a part of this.

I disagree with this. Not in principle — you’re right in that we all bring our own experiences and assumptions to the story (which you’re calling “context”; I’ll stick with “baggage”), and you’re right in that we do this whether we should or not. But I still believe that Alaya’s assertion (“The personal history of the author is tangential at best”) is correct. The emphasis on “tangential” is mine, because I think it’s the perfect word for this issue. Tangents are often totally random, having nothing to do with the subject that inspired them. Tangents in the context of this discussion often say more about the observer of the art, than the artist herself or her work.

And one of those tangents is racism and/or stereotyping — another name for the context/baggage you’re talking about. Seeing that the author of a novel containing black dialect is white will trigger one set of assumptions, yes, especially if the dialect is handled badly. I might assume this was typical white racism. That assumption might even be correct — though it might not be. Maybe the author doesn’t understand how dialect works, period; maybe he should’ve talked to a linguist. Maybe the author did the right research, but is applying the wrong dialect (to my ear), since black dialect varies regionally across the US. I’m listening for Southern Bible Belt; maybe he’s giving me Midwestern Breadbasket. Or maybe what I might incorrectly assume is racism is simply the sign of a crappy writer who has a poor ear for dialogue.

If I see that the author is black, that would also trigger a set of assumptions on my part, but those assumptions could be equally wrong. On top of that, I might be more lenient/biased in my judgment of the dialect. (Case in point — I caught myself doing this with L. A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress Legend books. The dialogue and dialect reads completely wrong to me.) For another thing, the same things that lead white writers to screw up black dialogue — racist stereotypes, regional variations, poor research, bad writing — can also affect black writers. You can’t look at us and know the reason. You could look at us and conjure up a plausible-sounding tangent, but it might be complete bull.

To use your example, I read “The Tell-Tale Heart” before I ever learned about Poe’s substantial Issues. I thought it was powerfully written, full of lovely metaphors. Learning more about Poe might lead me to conclude that this story was written during an alcoholic fugue, or possibly a panic attack triggered by seeing a Jewish person (he was notoriously anti-Semitic). Both and neither of those assumptions might be true. He might also have just been having a really bad day when he wrote the story. Maybe the newspaper boy shortchanged him, or somebody at the grocery store gave him attitude. So does it really do me any good to try and draw conclusions about the man’s art based on what little I know about his background and life? Have I truly illuminated his work? Or have I just made up something that sounds plausible based on my own experiences, yet is completely wrong?

Of course the whole association of ‘mixed’ and ‘confused’ is a bunch of annoying BS that ‘monoracial’ (heh) folks on all sides perpetuate.

I’m not sure I agree with the idea that “The personal history of the author is tangential at best.”, though. There’s no way we can un-know who wrote the Tell-Tale Heart. It affects us when we read. White writers writing Black dialect are doing something different than Black writers doing the same thing. Texts always exist in a context, and author bio is a part of this. By the time we have an open book in our hands and are staring at the first words, we’ve got a whole heap of expectations, assumptions, fears, hopes, etc.. in mind. Our experience of reading the story would be a different one without these things acting on us.

Which is not to say that’s how it SHOULD be….

Tobias Buckell had a blog post no too long about about a similar occurance to yours , based on his fiction vs his bio picture. Alas, I don’t have a link. ;-(

This is just another version of the pressure that exists on black writers to “write black”, which is just another version of the pressure that exists on black people to “act black”. It’s all a part of the same stupid, racist effort to pigeonhole people based on superficialities — e.g., she’s a woman so she’s not strong, he’s a black man so he’s not smart. The world has finally conceded that we’re capable of being writers, and good writers, but only in those “authentic” spheres we’re permitted to know from personal experience. And sometimes the worst offenders, when it comes to this crap, are those within our own communities — the gatekeepers.

This may be the biggest reason why I write speculative fiction.