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Sep. 19th, 2012 04:05 pmMy big news of the day isn't my news at all. The awesome Yaritji Green has been awarded an Arts South Australia Grant. I'll be working with her on her novel as part of it, and I'm pleased as punch. She's a very talented writer (and a majorly talented person in other ways - she's taking a weekend off from undergrad medicine to do this!) and it's going to be so cool. Am a happy little vegemite.
The rest of today is about food. We celebrated the Moon Festival, Rosh Hashanah and a students' birthday in class today. There ought to be honey cake for CSFG tonight (I asked someone else to deliver it so that I wouldn't take it to class by mistake, but if he forgets, he'll have to apologise to everyone and then eat it all) and I'm finding time for CSFG by turning up early and working in the kitchen while the committee meets.
My thought for the day is how very easy it is to get the stories wrong for a culture you don't know. My Chinese Australian students explained their festival, and then everyone else wrote about it, but they had trouble. The sun was inverted with the moon, 'holes' in the story were filled in, and so forth. We all do this, but it was interesting to see it in action. No wonder so many writers get 'exotic' cultures wrong. This culture wasn't exotic, and it still stretched people. I shall work on basic tale telling next term, I think. Also, I shall start to keep an eye open for common errors people make when writing fantasy or hist fic about a culture not their own. Not 'common errors' in terms of a date wrong or a city moved, but errors in terms of tales shifted to that person's norm. This is very much something about which I need to know more.
For my next trick, I shall make a cuppa and work on bibliography.
ETA: For people who think they've heard Yaritji's name before, check here: http://narrellemharris.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/review-baggage-and-sprawl/
The rest of today is about food. We celebrated the Moon Festival, Rosh Hashanah and a students' birthday in class today. There ought to be honey cake for CSFG tonight (I asked someone else to deliver it so that I wouldn't take it to class by mistake, but if he forgets, he'll have to apologise to everyone and then eat it all) and I'm finding time for CSFG by turning up early and working in the kitchen while the committee meets.
My thought for the day is how very easy it is to get the stories wrong for a culture you don't know. My Chinese Australian students explained their festival, and then everyone else wrote about it, but they had trouble. The sun was inverted with the moon, 'holes' in the story were filled in, and so forth. We all do this, but it was interesting to see it in action. No wonder so many writers get 'exotic' cultures wrong. This culture wasn't exotic, and it still stretched people. I shall work on basic tale telling next term, I think. Also, I shall start to keep an eye open for common errors people make when writing fantasy or hist fic about a culture not their own. Not 'common errors' in terms of a date wrong or a city moved, but errors in terms of tales shifted to that person's norm. This is very much something about which I need to know more.
For my next trick, I shall make a cuppa and work on bibliography.
ETA: For people who think they've heard Yaritji's name before, check here: http://narrellemharris.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/review-baggage-and-sprawl/