Diversity and The Danger of the Single Story

I enjoyed reading the blog archive about the recent Twitter #kidlitchat on diversity, thoughtfully archived by Greg Pincus (www.thehappyaccident.net). Issues raised during the chat included whether or not people should write outside their own cultures or gender or sexual orientation; whether or not awards should be given for books centering on different ethnicities (perhaps because this risks celebrating our differences and perhaps unwittingly creating an "other"); and others asked why there are not more main protagonists of color and/or GLBTQ.

The twitter chat left me thinking how all these questions and opinions are valid if our intentions as writers, agents and publishers are to help create a more tolerant world. A world in which no "single story" is told, to borrow a phrase from TED Talk author Chimamanda Adichie, a writer from Nigeria who grew up reading British and American literature. "Even books that come across as stereotypical have a grain of truth to them, they simply lack the complete picture," Adichie says. One of the stories this writer tells during her TED Talk is about her former professor (presumably Western) who responded as follows after reading a draft of her novel, "This is not authentically African, your characters are just like me. They are educated, middle class and drive cars." She explained that this professor, like many people around the world, have been influenced by a single narrative when it comes to describing individual African nations. To listen to her talk, click on the link below.

Publishers can help create the complete picture by publishing more than one kind of book. I often write stories set in the Middle East and therefore I am keyed into books relating to this part of the world. What I mostly see on the shelves of libraries and bookstores at home and in Europe are stories about martyrs, terrorists and the oppression of women. I recently discussed this with a librarian who looked at me and said flatly, "Well that's how it is over there!" Yet my years of traveling, living and working in several Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries have taught me that this region is not synonymous with strife. Neither is it synonymous with Islam, as there are many living there who follow other religious traditions, or are secular or atheist.

Reza Aslan, internationally renown religion scholar and author of No god, but God, often points out that contrary to what many Americans think, all Muslims do not believe the same thing. In a recent interview on Gulf News.com Reza also cautions about reading certain authors who use their celebrity status to make generalizations about places and religions and therefore create for us all, what Chimamanda Adichie describes as an incomplete "single story." To read Reza's article, visit: (http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/islam-s-pulse-in-the-us-1.837480)

To listen to the afore mentioned TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Diversity clip art from: http://www.fotosearch.com/FSB046/x29936942/

Ten Ten Ten Climate Party

About a week ago, 350.org, an organization working on solutions for our climate crisis
called for a World Climate Party. On their website they wrote:

Dear World,

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

Their party was a grand success. 7,347 people from 188 countries participated, even the President of the Moldives, who erected a solar panel on the roof of his home.

For more details check out: http://www.350.org/en/invitation

On 10/10/10 I happened to be in Utah, enjoying the desert. I had a private party of one on a boulder alongside a canyon stream. I hiked to this pristine spot and honored the day by reading. No carbon expended on the trail, no juice required to turn the pages of my traditional book. In that quiet moment I reflected on how much resources I normally use in a day between driving to and fro on errands and working on my computer.

Check out the previous post for praise of this book that I read on October 10, No god, But God, by Reza Aslan. How fitting the desert setting was for reading about the inception of Islam in Arabia. Sand, quite literally, swept through the pages as well as Aslan's eloquent prose.

Reza Aslan at the University of Utah

Pictured in the post above is a book by Reza Aslan No god, But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam. I cannot say enough good things about this work. The book explains the history of Islam in light of current events. It is informative, thorough, and best of all, it reads much like a novel.

Aslan says, "Storytelling is the key to building bridges and fostering mutual understanding. If we can tap into the narratives of other people, it gives us a better window into their religion, their politics, and their social and economic circumstances than any policy briefing could."

I recommend this book for readers who know little or a lot about Islam as Reza is sure to overturn several stones where even the most learned have not tread.

Reza Aslan will be giving a lecture at the University of Utah Middle Eastern Studies Center on Monday, Oct 25th at 7pm in the library auditorium. For more information about this event visit: http://www.mec.utah.edu/?pageId=5627

To read an interview with Reza Aslan on Religion Gone Global visit: http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/05/27/religion-gone-global/ This is the source of the quote by Reza cited above.

To learn more about Reza Aslan visit his website at: http://www.rezaaslan.com/