Alisa Valdes, Chica Lit and Humanity.

Alisa Valdes went on a long twitter rant yesterday on race, literature, and categorization. Here's a sample tweet
"Dear James Patterson: The white community is so proud of you for writing our white stories. Sound absurd? Quit doing it 2me.

and another:

The idea that Latinos are homogeneous and predictable because of a US-manufactured "ethnicity" is morally repugnant & makes us all subhuman.

And on her facebook, she notes that "I hate all labels. Always have. I find them simplistic and moronic. That's why I tried in my "chica lit" novels to deconstruct the Latino myth"

Now, these tweets aren't the full conversation, read back in her timeline and read her entire update if you want her entire message.

But I think you can get the gist of some of her arguments. I think there's a lot of truth in her discussion of the diversity of Latinos and the artificiality of racial categories.

(although I was reminded of how in this story, they discussed how Latin@s in the second generation tended to identify as 'white' less often- and I think that's because in this country, they aren't 'white' - although to me, 'white' means that there aren't widespread hysterias about how your group is RUINING THE NATION and THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW against whatever your group is supposedly doing whether it's speaking Spanish, being poor and having a kid, or drinking beer*)

However, I think there's a huge hunger for stories of more than just the pale and male, and so when people see those stories, they say "write more! write this new Chica lit I've discovered!" Categories may be invented, but those invented categories structure our lives. We want to see our experiences in literature, and thus the categorization. When we go to the shelf for Latina lit, African American lit, Asian American lit, we go there to finally see ourselves reflected in the pages of books.

I don't think that these categories mean the works aren't universal- I've never set foot in the Caribbean, but the Carribbean influenced stories of Nalo Hopskinson speak to me. I've never been Chinese, but I love Amy Tan. I've even read Valdes' work(I was entertained). Categories don't mean that we aren't all human, and at the heart, we all want safety, warmth and happiness, but they color the ways we get to these human universals.


Categories of stories about who a people are are just as valid as categories about whether a story involves dragons and swords or spaceships. We go to the shelves to learn something deeper about that experience-whether it's ethnic experience or the imagined experience of wacky god sex.

We may be surprised about what we find.

*The Irish and Germans became white when we no longer had to hear about how their beer drinking ways and/or Catholism were breaking the country's fabric apart.

For Fuck's Sake, Buy a Book

Create a job- buy a book. I'll often support web comics and other stuff by buying since I know that the economy is so rough. One more book sold is more opportunity for someone to make a living, and also for auxiliary jobs- editor, publisher, print dude, dude who puts books on shelves. So don't be a cheap fucking wad. Buy a book today. I did. (OK, it was Alice in the Country of Hearts Vol 4, all of which were near the front of the bookstore instead of in their designated place. But I bought a book like object, which is what counts.)

Alisa Valdes Explains Why Tv Sucks

4 layered interesting Latina women of all races and backgrounds become stereotyped over sexualized cardboard cutouts. The reason people liked Dirty Girls Social Club(I read it, and liked it) was that the women were interesting characters! I don't have a Latina background, but really, we're not as stupid as TV creators believe. Our worlds are more diverse than theirs. I see young Latinas, young black women, young white women, young Asian women, young Arab women moving forward and taking charge of their futures. We write, we study math and science, we create art, we have friends and family in our lives that are as or more important than the fleeting attentions of a man. Really, get it together, tv writers!

More about the Hunger Games

And BTW: I don't want to be assured that a bunch of 'off screen' characters are people of color, or that we can just imagine that everyone is any color. I want to 'see' it. Even the little note that Rue is dark skinned is enough for me. If you just go with "the red haired, green eyed girl" I'm not seeing anyone who looks like me. When an author goes out of their way to not mention skin color, except for one or two times, our mental landscape may end up not very colorful.

Now, for movie rumors! A white Rue would be awful. I'll accept a white Katniss, even though I'd prefer someone more ambiguous. BUT! I don't want a Katniss that can't seem like she is fighting desperately for survival. And for god's sake, don't take out the action and replace it with boring boring romance scenes, please?

The Hunger Games Bothers Me

Panem used to be America, and this book is set years and years into the future, so where are all the PoC? We see maybe two people who are mentioned to be dark skinned, but there should be a huge amount- in 2050, we'll be majority minority.

I like how Mockingjay never forgot that they are in the middle of a war. There's not much time for kissing and worrying about which boy to date when there's a countrywide rebellion on, people are dying every day,etc. I don't think Katniss could have chosen Gale after she saw how his anger and hatred towards the capitol had twisted him.

Reviews: Wild Ones, Gemini Lost, and Powers by Ursula Leguin

Wild Ones

I read volumes 4-9. It's a vaguely pleasant manga, with characters that aren't insanely gripping, but interesting enough. Sachie is a pleasantly interesting protagonist-dense, yet hardworking and loyal. Rakuto has a mysterious past out of central casting, with the requisite selfish mother and kind father, who only wants to be a good dad, but is hamstrung by obstacles that would not be viewed as an adequate excuse for a mother not to see her child. I also enjoyed the fact that the obstacles to lurve weren't eliminated after the first volume or so, like some manga I have seen. Instead of folding at the first sign of TRUE LURVE, Azuma stays in the running, making determined attempts to catch Sachie's eye. Likewise Chigusa Sensei doesn't just drop out of the story after his arc is completed. Wild Ones is competent shoujo- the illustrations are better suited for paging through quickly than detailed study, and the plot is pretty weak, mostly relying on one shots of people nearly finding out the TERRIBLE SECRET that Sachie lives in a Yakuza family or Sachie's big mouth getting Rakuto and Azuma into situations in which the kind and gentle Yakuza who never extort money, give anyone an injury worse than a bruise or do anything that could be remotely construed as illegal, help innocent and hardworking people out. Basically, I'm glad I got this from the library. I would have been mad if I spent money on it.

Gemini Lost
A well produced game with brightly colored graphics. You click and drag your little people to cut wood, mine stones, do research,etc. I liked that the game incorporated its Zodiac theme in that only characters with 'preferred' Zodiac signs can marry[and near automatically produce children] One game mechanic that I was annoyed with was that the children are fairly useless until they are 18. In an agrarian society, you'd think they'd at least be able to fish or do something in the garden. Some may complain about the lack of innovation, which is a consistent problem with casual games, probably because they come out so fast, and are meant to be light entertainment, much like the arcade games of long ago.

Powers by Ursula LeGuin

Yet again, Ursula LeGuin manages to write a book that is amazing and an instant classic,etc. I think my favorite part of her writing is that people live in the cultures they are born with, not the cultures that we would prefer them to live in. In a society based on slavery, our protagonists are not the lone voices against slavery who bravely resist. Instead, they very humanly believe that the way the world is is the only way the world can be. I also liked the depiction of the lives of the Marsh people, especially the observation that city people may have thought of their lives as simple, but their culture was really rich and complex. I also liked that Gav was not the sort of person who automatically fit into radically different societies at a blink like many fantasy protagonists, and I liked how the theme that Gav must learn to see the sexual violence against women in his society was subtle, yet powerful. With his sister, the women of the forest, and little Melle, everytime he is unable to really see what the true circumstances of the women in his lives are, tragedy follows, but when he is able to see them for what they are, things improve.

I also like how the 1st two books were swept into this one- not over obviously, but beautifully all the same.

It's Time For Urban Fiction!

Racialious has the goods. We're reliant on information from media sources, I agree. So here's some info from my media- read Nalo here.