4 ms·
I mean that has happened, a book that got critical acclaim was then basically cancelled. American Dirt is by all rights a fine novel and story, but all the cont
by bitexploder 5y ago
I mean that has happened, a book that got critical acclaim was then basically cancelled. American Dirt is by all rights a fine novel and story, but all the contention around the publishers handling of it and cries of cultural appropriation gained critical mass and made a mess of things.
- nineplay 5y agoI think some of it was sincere criticism of a unpleasantly stereotypical main character. The novel was initially popular among mostly-white female book clubs, then as the Latino population started to read it there was a collective WTF. Disclosure, I am a white female who occasionally participates in book clubs. I don't want this to sound like a cheap-shot, it's just that by their nature they tend to have a common reaction. I could say the same thing about articles targeted to mostly-male engineers which tend to get uniform feedback.
- jfengel 5y agoI found Morrison's quote a little odd, since she herself wrote almost exclusively about black women. Not about herself, but about her ancestors, or people who could have been her ancestors, in a culture that she knew a lot about. Following her advice just from that one sentence would almost certainly lead to cultural appropriation and unpleasant stereotypes. Taking the advice to be imaginative is good. Writing stereotypes isn't imagination; it's lazy.