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Tayari's Blog: Time To Break The Mirror

Posted by TayariJones on December 21, 2008 09:13 AM
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There are a couple interesting articles about the fraught intersection of reading, writing,and publishing. Although they seem, at first blush, to be really different, I think they both address the same fundamental issue.

The first is a piece over at Huffington Post that ponders why men don't read as much as women. I have to give a derisive little snort when he complained that men don't get a fair shake in published. (Have men not won the National Book Award for four years running? Is Stephen King not the best paid writer ever?) But okay, let's get back to the topic. The article argues that men don't read because the book world is just too pink. Too much chick stuff.

I find it really disturbing that books about women and women's lives are accepted as being icky to men. Newsflash: Men can read books about women. Reading is not supposed to be about looking in the mirror; it's not supposed to be an exercise in narcissism. I can't tell you how many men have asked about my books, looking for some clearance that it is okay for them to read, too. I would never dream of asking a male writer if his book was just for men. The way he writes about the Jane Austin inspired books, he sounds like a man sent to the drugstore to buy tampons for his girlfriend.

The next article on my mind this morning is by friend-of-the-blog, Carleen Brice. Her piece is about her campaign to get white readers to buy books by black authors. Again, the question of whether or not reading is about readers being about to "see" themselves in literature is at the center. While I completely agree with her, the discussion makes me a little queasy. African-American writers and other minority writers are constantly pleading for readers, constantly having to vouch for their own humanity. I know it has to be done, but the conversation is so problematic.

In "The Colored Section", I have written that the answer to question of desegregating the nation's reading habits is not getting rid of the African American section in the bookstore. I think the true issue is how alienating some readers find that little sign that says "African American Interest". The fact that it sends some readers scurrying in the opposite direction is real cultural issue that we must address. Removing the sign is just treating the symptom and facilitates denial, our national malady.

I often think of the success of Harry Potter. Although the author is a woman, it's not insignificant that she used her "neutral" sounding initials. And it is definitely significant to note that people all over the world found themselves identifying with the Harry-- eventhough millions of the readers were likely neither white, male, nor magical.

I think now is the time to take a lesson from my friend Jean Thompson. She says that when people ask her a stupid question, she pretends not to hear them and makes them repeat it until they realise how ridiculous they are. So when people say, "Are your books for everybody?" I'll say, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you?"

I'm willing to make them say it over and over until they really hear themselves.

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