Today, I watched a video by Meg LaTorre, a fantasy writer and literary agent called, “Why Books Are Rejected,” (link). I would recommend give it a watch, the advice she gives is very insightful. Having tried to publish a couple of my works, and getting next to no feedback, always made me wonder why my novel was rejected – so getting a glimpse behind the curtain was groovy.
However, she does give some question advice that instantly made my blood boil. Basically, she goes on to say (and this is just a summary and not a direct quote) that white writers should not write about the black experience. Simply put, we are stealing their stories.
Does anyone else out there find this incredibly stupid?
I’m all about the celebration of diversity, but this is nothing short of self-censorship! The idea that a writer cannot write about a certain experience because they are not of that gender or race is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. Maybe Meg needs to realize Harry Potter was written by a woman! So, by her stupid logic, J.K. Rowling should have written about a female’s journey at Hogwarts, right? What about James Cameron and Ripley from Aliens or George Romero’s, Ben; one of the first black heroes in horror in the classic Night of the Living Dead?!
Hearing this new ‘woke’ philosophy, especially when related to fiction, just pisses me off. Right now, at Marvel, only Muslims writers can write about Kamala Khan – as if a Christian author or atheists couldn’t write the character and do it justice!
Currently, you look at Marvel and DC as an example, and you see a dying industry because it ran to express a political agenda instead of entertaining the reader. Instead of creating interesting new characters for the comic fans to get behind, they did a reboot of all the classic characters and turned them female and gay – GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!
I was totally against Ghostbusters 2016 and the current Terminator movie – not because of the female casting and leads, but the message they try to shove down my throat. With Ghostbusters, when I saw the teaser posters, I was excited – I liked the cast and the director. But that trailer, holy shit did it suck and it totally turned me off to seeing it. Same with all these other ‘woke’ films. Write great characters in great stories and I will watch them.
People keep doing the whole “Wakanda Forever,” bullshit as the black community totally rallies behind Black Panther. I love how the character and movie got a bunch of people into the theater and into the Marvel universe, but it wasn’t even created by black authors. It was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two white dudes in 1966!!!
The thing people forget, let’s say an African-American and I write a story about a young black kid who goes on a road trip. We could have the same characters and central plot points, but the two stories would be completely different. Different in voice, tone, and emotion – and both be equally good. But this woman and a lot of ‘woke’ agents today wouldn’t give me, as a white male, any credit and might even refuse to publish my book because I’m a white author writing about the black experience.
Fucking ridiculous.
Hey writers, prove this chick wrong. Write what you like, no matter who the character is or their race, sexuality, or what have you. Just make the character good and the story fantastic. Don’t let the world censor your fucking creativity.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Hall of the King 