that thing where poetry isn't a luxury, oh and also the one with the master's tools

[lotesse]

I've been thinking long and hard about RaceFail09. Being quiet, trying to deal. Maybe too quiet - I've been melancholy, and so perhaps too disengaged. But I think I've come to one point of absolute resolution - namely, that in a world of infinite art, theory, storytelling, I don't think I have time for shoddiness or shallow thinking. And I define defensive, racist, blind behavior as ultimately and fundamentally and irrevocably shallow.

It was shallow last spring when this went around the feminist blogs, in the same way that those selfsame feminist blogs recognized that it was shallow years ago when the fauxgressives at DailyKos decided that feminists were sanctimonious harpies.

And I'm look for the smart stuff, here. I left those blogs because I'm looking for the best possible analysis, and Kos' rejection of feminism and Amanda Marcotte's appropriation of the work of women of color both tell me that neither of those bloggers can correctly parse intersectional oppressions. Here's the deal - I don't read Black feminism out of respect for diversity or multiculturalism or whatever. I read Black feminism because without that analysis, how can I ever come to any understanding of a patriarchy that also bases itself in racial hierarchy?

I'll read a book if I think it's likely to be smart. Generally, I can't help but think that anyone who has such extreme lack of self-recognition or cultural consciousness as Elizabeth Bear, Will Shetterly, and especially the Nielsen Haydens have shown in their responses to this business is unlikely to have enough creative intellect to create a world or a character or a novel in which I'm interested.

I guess what I'm really saying is that the fail on display in all of this is more than just insensitive, hegemonic, and asinine. It's also the evidence of deep loss of imagination, compassion, inspiration and creativity. Diversity enriches us! Other perspectives enrich us. I know that I, as a white feminist, have found so many of my really big important answers in the writings of non-white women - Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde. Heck, even though her rhetoric probably comes to us through distortions, Sojourner Truth. Their work has shown me my paths to liberation in ways that Gloria Steinem's never has. Of course, that doesn't mean that I can take what I want from women of color and then run off with those spoils - because they helped me, I have an ethical responsibility to be an ally, to reach back and lend a hand, to not leave anyone behind, to not silence any other mouth.

We're arguing towards not just a more humane world, here, but a better literature - more free, more imaginative, with greater scope and passion and empathy. Any writer who bails on the revolution is also, I believe, bailing on her art. Poetry demands our complete honesty, and the poems of oppression are sad, dead, sterile things. Literature, creativity, and intellectualism all demand that we be willing to consider, to listen, and to evolve. When we stop doing those things we all die a little inside. No one is served by heirarchy, though some may benefit in the short term.

And I so don't have time for sterile stories or intellectually dishonest theories. I don't care how shiny the spaceships and dragons are - if they're resting on systemic oppression, there's nothing there but tired illusion.

Comments

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

Lovely--and connecting all that has gone on again to the very important question of whose stories are worth seeking out and treasuring.

[lotesse]

Right, exactly. I also think there's an issue of safe space, and its value - I know that I'm growing less and less likely to pick up a book, fiction or no, without express recommendations, because I'm so tired of finding myself suddenly in cultural quicksand. One of my mentors only reads fiction written by women, and I think a lot of people would feel the need to take her to task for that, but I totally grok her reasons. Because why not seek out safe and nourishing books? Why do I have to read bigoted old white dude fiction - just because of the canon?

We can sometimes talk about safe spaces as if they're somehow less valid, but all of Western culture is pretty much a safe space for those who are privileged, a little safe cocoon of ignorance.

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

Definitely--when I became a feminist in the early 80s, I spent some years (at least five, maybe more, it's a blur) reading nothing but women writers. Sadly for me, they were all WHITE women writers, and I didn't notice.

A lot of people, mostly but not all men, told me I was doing some sort of reverse sexism. I said I'd spent a lot of years in official education reading nothing but men, so I was catching up.

I still read mostly women (although not only white women) writers (unfortunately in this latest imbroglio, we can see white women FAIL in major ways).

[lotesse]

Ug, this level of fail is just so depressing. I want to be able to expect more of women because of their oppression, but I fear that it sometimes goes the other way around - I have the uncomfortable sensation that most of the failers would self-identify as feminists, and that their own particularly narrow perception of gender is actually contributing to their racism. "But I'm a feminist, so I can't be racist!"

[color-blue.livejournal.com]

I'll read a book if I think it's likely to be smart. Generally, I can't help but think that anyone who has such extreme lack of self-recognition or cultural consciousness as Elizabeth Bear, Will Shetterly, and especially the Nielsen Haydens have shown in their responses to this business is unlikely to have enough creative intellect to create a world or a character or a novel in which I'm interested.

This is definitely a part of why I have little desire to read anything by them anymore. There is this idea of art as something that can transcend the artist, exist outside him/her, and perhaps that is true, but whatever it is and wherever it comes from it is at least is filtered through the artists' perceptions. And I find their perceptions lacking in complexity and sensitivity and intellectual honesty and therefore don't think what they make will have much to offer me.


(Here via rydra_wong's links, in case you were wondering.)

[lotesse]

Right. And I know that, for me, I get tired of doing resistant readings. Because I can take a text lacking in complexity/sensitivity and rewrite it - fen do it all the bloody time - but I don't always want to. If I'm taking the bother to spend money on a novel, and giving it the time it takes to read, and you know, not reading all sorts of other stuff while I finish it - it had better be worth it.

[color-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes. And also, I keep thinking, even if what they write does strike a chord, perhaps it will be striking the wrong chord, reinforcing my prejudices and biases instead of dismantling them. I think that art can be very powerful, and I know there are stories that have changed the way I look at the world, and I don't want one of their stories to be that, because I just don't trust them to give me the - right view? - anymore. (This is really mean, right, but what it boils down to is that I don't want them to make me stupider than I already am.)

[lotesse]

I so totally get that. I try not to be paranoid - sometimes I'm not sure if my lit theory and my reading practices are at odds, because I was taught that the author was dead, but it's been a really long time since I've re-read anything by, oh frex Orson Scott Card, who I used to love.

But again, I also think we can reframe this as aesthetics instead of politics, if we want to - not that the two things are not completely interconnected, but you get at them through different paradigms. I talked to my mum yesterday about OSC's newest - she apparently hadn't heard any of his bigotry over the last couple of years, not really being a geek - and she asked me if it was just her, or was it a simply awful book?

[ms-treesap.livejournal.com]

This was beautiful and very wise. Thank you.

[lotesse]

Your icon is awesome!

Here via rydra_wong

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Great post. Thank you.

Re: Here via rydra_wong

[lotesse]

thanks!

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

in a world of infinite art, theory, storytelling, I don't think I have time for shoddiness or shallow thinking. And I define defensive, racist, blind behavior as ultimately and fundamentally and irrevocably shallow.

I'm with you there.

I think this a thoughtful and thought-provoking post. Thank you for sharing it publicly..