home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!rsoft!mindlink!a710
- From: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca (Crawford Kilian)
- Subject: Re: Cultural Appropriation and the New Age
- Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 06:34:01 GMT
- Message-ID: <18786@mindlink.bc.ca>
- Sender: news@deep.rsoft.bc.ca (Usenet)
- Lines: 61
-
- Mary Smith-Nolan raises an important question in a slightly confusing way:
- Calling Europeans "New Agers" makes me think Columbus discovered America
- thanks to a channeler.
-
- Getting beyond that to her basic question, "cultural appropriation" has
- become a noisy issue here in Canada--especially in connection with white
- writers portraying native Indians or members of other ethnic groups. As a
- novelist of German-Slovak-Anglo-Irish descent, born in the US, raised in
- Mexico and now a citizen of Canada, I have a very hard time with the very
- concept of cultural appropriation. In effect, it tells writers they can write
- only about themselves; they have neither the right nor even the ability to
- explore anyone else's culture, or to show their own in the light of someone
- else's.
-
- In its most extreme form, which I call "clonism," the premise is that nobody
- knows the trouble I've seen except someone just like me--and nobody except
- someone just like me has any business writing about my experience and values.
- The logical extension of this view is that artistic expression is beside the
- point--no one except someone just like you can ever *really* understand the
- experience you portray in art. And if art can't communicate across cultures,
- generations and genders, what the hell is the point?
-
- About 20 years ago, an Inuk named Markoosie appropriated the form of the
- English-language novel and wrote a superb novel called Harpoon of the Hunter;
- it brought Inuit life and values alive in my imagination and the minds of
- many other readers. About 2 years ago, another Inuk--a teenage girl in
- Iqaluit, on Baffin Island--posted a story about her family in an online
- writing course I was teaching. The story created the cyberspace equivalent of
- an earthquake, startling and delighting everyone who read it.
-
- By the same token, if I were to master the technique of Inuit carving, and I
- was really good at it, I would be contributing to an artistic genre and in
- turn enriching every other carver. If I was lousy at it, my work would
- rapidly disappear. Similarly, if I "appropriated" stories and legends from
- some ethnic group (Haida, Maya, Slovak) and adapted them to science fiction
- or fantasy, I would benefit both the originating culture--by disseminating
- its arts--and the receiving culture (and God knows SF and fantasy need all
- the benefits they can get). If I sensationalized or trivialized what I'd
- taken, I might enjoy a passing success among readers who wanted agreement
- with their preconceptions; but I wouldn't remain a longtime influence because
- dishonest art doesn't last.
-
- What are the "spiritual" effects of such appropriation? Probably an intense
- annoyance when the appropriator screws up. We all feel that when we read or
- watch something that conflicts with what we know to be the case. (I came out
- of seeing "The Deer Hunter" absolutely seething at the stupidly inaccurate
- way US servicemen were portrayed--my God, Robert DeNiro as a Green Beret in a
- *beard*?) That's too bad, but unless you're going to keep your culture hidden
- away in the dark, someone else is going to see it, be affected by it, and
- incorporate it into another culture.
-
- I hope I'm making sense about this. I welcome reponses from Mary and anyone
- else with an interest in the subject.
-
-
- --
- Crawford Kilian Communications Department Capilano College
- North Vancouver BC Canada V7J 3H5
- Usenet: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca
- Internet: ckilian@first.etc.bc.ca
-
-