I’m a teacher and I love my job, but would you like to meet my true love? Writing. Namely, writing novels. I have a great agent and she does her best to get my stories out into the world. But as a black author, it’s not always easy.
Things seem to be getting a little better for writers of color, but I definitely felt a connection to Jeffrey Wright’s character in the Oscar-nominated film, American fictionin many ways (it was not long ago that people wrote about how white the book industry is). However, I also realized that I didn’t connect with him in some ways. Here’s why.
Why I understand this: It really feels like the book industry is constantly chasing trends
Although the novel Deleteon which this film is based came out in 2001 and is extremely relevant. Or maybe the book industry has always just been a trend-chaser.
Despite it, Delete feels particularly prescient, as it predicted the growing pains the industry would go through as publishers seemingly sought out novels by BIPOC authors. This came after several cases of police brutality frequently made headlines.
In fact, I remember some of the agents I approached before I found my current agent (who I adore) wondering if I could change some details in a story so that the police could be hostile towards my main character. Now, while I am well aware that there are some Police officers who do not strictly follow the rules when it comes to her work, this book was definitely not about The.
There are excellent books by black authors on this topic, such as The hate you give (which later a well-reviewed film) by Angie Thomas and Dear Martin by Nic Stone, but my novel wasn’t that kind of book. It was a superhero story, for heaven’s sake, and the police weren’t even involved in it. However, two different agents wanted the inciting incident to be an assault on my protagonist by a police officer, which I didn’t want, and I told them so.
And we see something similar in American fiction. Jeffrey Wright’s character, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, writes heady, intellectual books. But they are not necessarily “black” books, meaning they do not fall into the stereotypical black traps. In his eyes Was To write “black” books because he was a black author (and he’s not wrong).
However, if another black author writes a novel called We live in the ghetto Because he felt he was pandering to the white audience’s perception of black people, he decided to jokingly write his own book entitled My Pafologythat indulged in all the black stereotypes. And as you probably already know, it was a huge success.
Like Ellison, I would be disgusted by his success, but delighted to finally get the recognition I always thought I deserved. So I understand why he was reluctant to accept his success, even though he was extremely cynical about it.
Why I can’t understand this: However, I don’t follow trends like Jeffrey Wright’s character
I don’t want to give away the movie if you haven’t seen it yet, but part of the reason Ellison took the money that came with the sale My Pafology is because someone in his family needed medical attention. If Ellison hadn’t been in dire straits, he might not have had the procedure.
Once he got through it, however, he didn’t exactly turn down the money (or the secret fame) that came with it. In fact, he doubled down and tricked publishers into dropping him by coming up with a much more controversial four-letter title for his book, which he knew wouldn’t hit store shelves… until it did.
In this way, Ellison had followed a trend, whether he wanted to admit it or not, and that is something I not I do, probably to my detriment. Because when I wrote my superhero story, I didn’t write it because superheroes were in at the time. I wrote it because I love superheroes.
My latest book is about video games. I didn’t write it because video games are in. I wrote it because I love video games and the the best video game movies.
Those two books are out there now, patiently waiting for an editor to like them, so in the meantime I’m writing a book about Kaiju. And not because Godzilla is in it, but because (say it with me!) I love Kaiju and movies like Godzilla Minus One! Whether any of these books get picked up is not really up to me, but I will never chase a trend or even write in the direction of one. I don’t even think I know how.
Why I can identify with this: It seems that minorities are often expected to write non-fiction
What kind of bothers me is that minorities are often expected to write books on certain topics. By that I mean, it seems like books by minorities (or at least many of the books that are published) have some kind of racist background.
This is not so true of books outside of America, as many authors around the world seem to have the freedom to write any kind of book they want without considering racial issues in it. However, I have noticed that many of the books I read by people of color seem to have racial issues as a thematic undercurrent in their works.
This could be exactly the story the author wanted to tell, similar to Jordan Peele’s important films. And that’s cool. I love Jordan Peele.
But as someone who reads books about pretty much every race, I don’t often see white authors writing about the white experience. Not that I particularly enjoy reading that kind of story, but it seems like white authors don’t have to say anything about race, whereas I find that race comes up a lot in books by people of color.
Why I don’t tell you this: I don’t live in an ivory tower
I like Ellison’s character for the most part, but I also kind of dislike him. It’s not entirely his fault. It’s the way he was raised. But he definitely looks down on other people, even within his own family.
In many ways, when Ellison mocked a black author for writing We live in the ghettohe admitted that he hadn’t even read it when he wrote his own “Black” story. That just screams ignorance. All he really had was a quick read that the author had done in person, and he believed that could influence and shape his entire opinion of her work, which is just ridiculous.
In that sense, I never look down on other authors or even on readers of books I don’t particularly like. People like what they like and I never look down on those people. Especially not on my audience. God bless each and every one of my readers.
Why I can relate: I feel incredibly lonely sometimes, especially as a black author
Finally, Ellison is an incredibly lonely character as he feels like he can’t build a relationship with anyone, not even his wonderful girlfriend who is just trying to be more involved in his life.
And I can relate to that. I don’t think it’s a controversial statement that every novelist is at least a little bit lonely. How could it be otherwise when we spend so much time alone, talking to ourselves through the voices we’ve created.
However, I think it’s especially lonely as a black writer because we often wrestle with all these ideas that are pushed by the media and swirling around in our heads. For example, when agents (who were white, by the way) asked me to maybe make cops the villains in my story, I doubted myself and asked myself, “Should I?” I mean, I get Stories about social justiceand I understand their importance, but is it really my job to talk about it, especially since I write primarily for children?
I don’t know, but ultimately I feel isolated and alone, and so I understand that aspect of Ellison’s character. It speaks to me.
Have you seen American fiction yet? If you’re a black author and you haven’t, you should definitely do so. You probably won’t be disappointed.
