To answer this prompt fully would require an entire essay - much too long for a mere blog. It is such a hot topic in the blogosphere with many more qualified and more articulate bloggers weighing in on the issue that I feel overwhelmed even thinking about writing some sort of comprehensive theses or manifesto on my relationship with diverse reading. So instead of doing so, here are a few random, under-developed ideas about the issue:
- For me, reading about diverse subject matter is more important and interesting than reading books by "diverse" authors. You can read five YA romance novels by 5 completely different authors (gender, race, age, etc.) that all pretty much reveal the same themes and ideologies. If, however, you read about different ideas/people/places in different genres, you are more likely to learn something about people who are not you...IN MY EXPERIENCE.
- Diversity is so focused on race/ethnicity that I think we miss out on a giant chunk of diverse reading. IN MY EXPERIENCE, great social dividers have more to do with economic class than race or ethnicity. This may be in large part due to where I live but that's why I have the "in my experience" disclaimer. And even beyond economics, we have stories about people with disabilities, non-hetero sexual orientation, non-Christian-Muslim religions, older people (which in current trends could really be anyone over the age of 30), and so on.
- I do not feel that people should be required to read diversely, regardless of the definition. I do not look down on bloggers or people in general who read only books about white upper middle class people written by white upper middle class authors. Reading is a personal pleasure, not a learning experience for everyone. That being said, I really do think people are missing out if they don't read diversely. IN MY EXPERIENCE, reading only one type of story is remarkably boring and neither satisfying nor edifying.
- The white men who wrote all of those canonical books kicked ass and not reading those classics because they were written by privileged white dudes is doing yourself a disservice IN MY EXPERIENCE. Seriously Shakespeare, Homer, Dickens, Doyle, Twain, and so on rocked. But you also shouldn't miss out on the Brontes, Austen, Harper Lee, Hurston, Woolf, Achebe, Morrison, Du Bois, and the such not because they rocked too.
- If you really want to read diversely, read some Ancient Lit. IN MY EXPERIENCE, it's awesome and we have amazing works from a variety of cultures. The Upanishads, Ramayana, Hammurabi's Code, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Panchatantra, I Ching, Art of War, there is just a ton of work to peruse and learn from.
I pretty much agree with you. I think the main problem is that publishers do not allocate a budget for publishing books that may not have the same broad market as say, The Biography of Justin Bieber, which yes, is a real book. So very talented authors who are, or write about, "diverse" populations don't get published and therefore readers miss out. It's a shame but I don't think "forced" reading is the answer. Maybe forced publishing... :--)
ReplyDeleteI would be all for "forced publishing".
DeleteTalking about diversity in literature/nonfiction/publishing IS sticky/tricky and reading should boil down to personal preference--though I would hope that most readers would WANT to go beyond the mainstream. More often than not, this isn't the case--probably because of what is widely available or marketed. I learned this month that most of my nonfiction history-focused books on my shelf are written by white men. Is that because people of color or women aren't publishing these books? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteWell, in my experience, this was a kick-ass post about reading diversely so I don't know what the jack you were talking about in that first paragraph. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou have made excellent points. I would much rather read about the diverse cultures than diverse authors but I do want to strive in the next year to read more books by diverse authors about their own diverse cultures, ex. a Filipino writing about the Filipino culture. I have read several books about the Indian culture this way but not entirely sure how the others I've read compare.
I don't judge people for knowing what they like and sticking to it either. I agree that I think they are missing out on a lot, but I don't think they are doing something wrong. God knows if someone thought it was wrong that I enjoyed reading diversely that would make me feel terrible (and probably incite anger!) and no one deserves to be judged for reading what they like.
Ancient lit is a GREAT recommendation! Love that idea. Reading The Upanishads and the Vedas and the Bodhisattva in college made me fall in love with learning diverse ideas, religions, and cultures, a tradition I obviously still partake in.
Really great post! I really appreciate your thoughtful approach to the topic. It's very clear you don't want to push your opinion on other people and I admire that. That said, I do share a lot of the opinions you express here.
ReplyDeletePersonally, it's important to me that I read books by authors who are of diverse sex, gender, and sexual orientation because I believe many people who would be considered "diverse" in these categories are under-represented in publishing. As a reader and a blogger, I'm hopeful that I can contribute my tiny bit to changing that. However, I definitely don't think everyone needs to do the same and don't think anyone should do this to the point where they're forcing themselves to pick up books they don't expect to like. That doesn't help anyone!
I also agree with you that race and gender aren't necessarily the biggest divides in terms of perspective. The most radically different books I've read have been translated fiction, so that's something I'm trying to read more of.
I think you're totally right that a big divider in life experience has to do with economics, in some significantly different ways than race or ethnicity. Someone did a great post on books about work that got at some of these topics... I can't remember who now. Ugh. Great post though (especially the emphasis on experience -- so true in talking about a lot of this).
ReplyDeleteAmazing post. Your points are outstanding.
ReplyDeleteWere you scared to post this? I am sad you felt the need to have such a disclaimer at each point. And glad that you haven't been trolled as maybe you thought you would be!
ReplyDeleteIn non-fiction, a diversity of topics is important to me. But I can see people wanting to go really in-depth into one topic from several viewpoints. I DO think that an anthropologist from Syria, for example, would have a different view of the same topic than an anthropologist from Canada.
And while I agree on the economics, I think at least in the US, it's pretty hard to separate economics from race, so they are often two sides of the same coin.
I was terrified Aarti. I think those who strongly disagree are steering clear. :)
DeleteThe relationship between economics and race is certainly strong - at least according to what the news is telling me. For me, I have lived or at least spent a great deal of time in three places. In one, the majority of the poor people were black; in another, the majority of poor people were white; and in the third, the split between white, Hispanic, and black was equal in the more disadvantaged areas of town.
In the one community which had populations outside of the white-Hispanic-black category, the economic status was closely tied to how close the family was to the original family immigrant - which is of course tied to race but only due to immigration.
Ok, now I'm off on new topics that I haven't quite thought through yet. :) This really is such an important issue.
Great post.
ReplyDelete