Words of Wisdom from An Agent Provocateur
Been chatting with gabe chouinard, infamous genre bastard and general crank*, and he offered this gem:
10:26 PM gabe: i think of it this way. you can't go lengths to disguise your local color, because it's who you are as a writer. but aim for an international market, and leave it to that market to educate themselves about your particular place.
10:27 PM like, Pamuk. Love him, obviously. But he writes very Turkish novels. Does that detract from my liking them, because i don't "get" that Turkish infusion? No, it means I have to learn as i read.
me: Mmm....
gabe: it's up to the reader to take away what he/she can, and up to the writer to remain honest. (gabe's koan for the night.)
Something to muse about when one is writing for an uncertain audience, yes?
*And yes, check out the links. They're good reading.
6 comments:
haven't clicked the links yet, but here's my two centavos: the way i see it, writers hereabouts worry too much about 'local color', and think way too much of literature that has it.
as a writer, write what you will. your work will either have a recognizable local color or it won't.
simple as that.
the problem i see is the bias for one against the other. this is rubbish. a 'good', 'well-written' story is a 'good' and 'well-written' story. local color is just an element it may or may not have, and a piece shouldn't get bonus points for having or not having it.
-sbd
add: not to dis yer post, dude, but i personally find this discussion much more relevant to me as a writer:
http://www.ttapress.com/discus/messages/27/4895.html?1170081150
-sbd
ok, that Chouinard essay is pretty relevant...
-sbd
Hehe is this round 2 on the subject matter? Seriously, writing in the vein of epic fantasies that doesn't really sit well with me. Hence my need to infuse local color in my writing. Though I do admit to writing stories that don't have local color, but I also don't think they have humans in them.
But I concur: to paraphrase de Sade, write what you will. ;-)
However, I do think when I write that big-ass novel, it will probably be lacking totally in local flavor. However, it will also probably be too out-of-this world to be recognizable in any other genre. Unless they make New Weird the official thing.
hmmm... will check the thread in a bit. As for Chouinard, which one?
the 'where is SFF going' essay
They're all interesting reading but you should try at least the dislofics columns. :-)
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