Authors, assumptions thereon
Sep. 7th, 2012 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithAnother post where I've been thinking about something. (Blame Sharyn.) (Although I should write more of these but either I sit down to write them and they seem silly, or I do write them and end up writing about something else, and then get annoyed at myself.) (Sometimes though, what I ended up writing is better than my unwritten thoughts, so I should do more.) (And I think I've worn out my ( key.)
This one is about assumptions readers make about authors, or maybe it's just one assumption. That is, if the contents of a novel don't match the readers' experience or knowledge than the author is wrong.
On one level, that's a fairly simple thing. Authors sometimes are wrong (eucalypts do not have berries, OK?). Or the author is right but generally known information about the topic is wrong.
Beyond that though, is there always an assumption that unless know otherwise the author is a white, middle-aged, American/country of residence*, who had a certain type of schooling and grew up in a particular type of neighbourhood and (insert adjectives of choice). So if they're writing about someone who is not, then they're basing it on research, or assumption, or other second-hand knowledge, which is why the characters experiences don't always ring true. This assumption is what I seem to be coming across in many reviews. Of course, that might be because most authors are white, middle-class etc and there it is a valid basis for comments.
Now that I've noticed this, it's something I want to think about.
(*I'm just as likely to be reading a book by an Australian author as an American so I'd have to assume they could be one or the other)
This one is about assumptions readers make about authors, or maybe it's just one assumption. That is, if the contents of a novel don't match the readers' experience or knowledge than the author is wrong.
On one level, that's a fairly simple thing. Authors sometimes are wrong (eucalypts do not have berries, OK?). Or the author is right but generally known information about the topic is wrong.
Beyond that though, is there always an assumption that unless know otherwise the author is a white, middle-aged, American/country of residence*, who had a certain type of schooling and grew up in a particular type of neighbourhood and (insert adjectives of choice). So if they're writing about someone who is not, then they're basing it on research, or assumption, or other second-hand knowledge, which is why the characters experiences don't always ring true. This assumption is what I seem to be coming across in many reviews. Of course, that might be because most authors are white, middle-class etc and there it is a valid basis for comments.
Now that I've noticed this, it's something I want to think about.
(*I'm just as likely to be reading a book by an Australian author as an American so I'd have to assume they could be one or the other)
