Indeed

Can’t argue with this.

The author of Babel and The Poppy War, Rebecca F Kuang, has said she finds the idea that authors should only write about characters of their own race “deeply frustrating and pretty illogical”.

She’s right. However, authors and publishers need to tell the identity politics brigade to swivel on it – and mean it. If people said ‘no’ then there isn’t anything the crybullies could do. But people cave and make it harder for others. As it is, I write about all sorts – Renegade has black characters, I’ve also written about a half Comanche, I’ve written about women and I’m none of these thing. I’ll write whatever I damned well please and the sensitivity readers can go hang. Oh, that’s right, I don’t use sensitivity readers.

8 Comments

  1. Unfortunately the publishing industry is dominated by women who are the gatekeepers of what gets published or not.

    One of my friends runs a B&B in Northumberland and the grounds have red squirrels which the guests like to watch. She encourages the squirrels by feeding them and they are quite tame.

    She wrote a children’s book about red squirrels and grey squirrels. Rejected because “racism”.

    That is also why the vast majority of newly published books don’t appeal to men – they are selected by women for women. Good luck trying to get anything past those harridans.

    • Hence the rise in micro publishers and self-publishing. There’s loads of stuff out there. Unfortunately, you might find a lot of dross, but getting published these days doesn’t mean that you have to go the traditional route and you can bypass the harridans. I’m late middle aged and white and male, so I’d never stand a chance with them. I haven’t bothered to try. I did once, about thirty years ago and gave up. Now I don’t have to worry about it. I write my novels and let Leggy do the editing and publishing. We don’t make much, but we do get out there.

  2. I read somewhere (can’t remember where I’m afraid; presumably an American site) that while big-name publishers feel a need to be based in New York, they can’t pay enough to live on there. To work at such a publisher one needs private means of some sort, so there is no incentive to think in terms of a paying business. Instead, publishing staff are paying for the privilege of choosing what to give people to read.

    The same presumably applies in London.

  3. If you should only write about characters of your own race then stories involving Aliens and Supernatural Entities cannot be written. So that puts the kybosh on most science fiction, the Bible and the Koran.

    And eventually the Borg will be so up themselves that it won’t be enough for people of a particular race to write stories about it, they will have to have the same sex and gender, state of health and ability, and neural divergence. So that’s Shakespeare kiboshed too.

  4. The idea that authors should only write about characters of their own race…will result in a novel that is totally devoid of the faintest hint of diversity. Is that what is required now? I’m having trouble keeping up.

  5. I remember a time when the complaint (usually made by a feminist) was that there were too few female leading characters and authors (usually men) should write more female leading characters into their stories.

    Mind you, the new rules mean that my story about a devilishly handsome 74 year old straight white man should go down really well. 😉

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