Re: Racial diversity here and possible (probable maybe,even?)
Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Wed, 12 Aug 1998 15:42:18 -0400
On Wed, Aug 12, 1998 at 03:21:36PM -0400, patrick flaherty wrote:
> Would you agree that an African American would relate more to say, Toni
> Morrison than Salinger? And vise versa for a White American?
I have absolutely no problem with, say, Terry MacMillan, who is as
relevant as possible to me. I taught myself to read at an absurdly
early age, and since then I've read pretty indiscriminately and learned
to drop myself into the fictional situation and accept it for what it
was.
For instance, I can't imagine a greater gap than the one between growing
up in Brooklyn in the late 20th century and the world of Dickens. Yet I
was able to read him without regard for his race or his culture.
Probably the only fiction that really gives me a problem in terms of
relating is science fiction (with, say, the exception of Philip K.
Dick and the Vonnegut books that are often labeled SF, but that generally
are not).
I have a vague idea that how you learn to read as a child has a profound
influence on how you read and understand things as an adult. But I'm
not an Academic Thinker, and I suspect that there are people on this
list who are much more qualified than I when it comes to speaking
authoritatively about this. I know that in my case, for instance, I'm
almost completely TV-illiterate, with the result that I get a damned
headache in the presence of TV shows that have laugh tracks. They make
me sick, literally. And I can't imagine myself being able to learn how
to watch these shows, or why I'd want to. In my case, I think, it's
less about race or income than it is about acculturation.
TV isn't my thing. It's as alien as moon rocks are to me. I would
guess that some people approach books in the same way.
--tim