3 ms·
I think some of it was sincere criticism of a unpleasantly stereotypical main character. The novel was initially popular among mostly-white female book clubs,
by nineplay 5y ago
I 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.