http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/04/globalizing-the-literary-landscape/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/04/globalizing-the-literary-landscape/comment-page-1/#comment-41198 Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:21:17 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=11287#comment-41198 I absorbed Egyptian authors like Nahguib Mahfouz from an early age and consider India to be an all-round fiction diamond field, but doesn\’t this line of thought lend itself to it\’s own stereotypical hall of mirrors? For instance, everyone encourages writers of whatever ethnic specialty as long as they stay within the expected themes of struggle and social justice, (and then immediately complains they\’re not mainstream enough) but as soon as one of them comes up with a minority Bart Simpson that resonates with a large audience the author will be accused of \”selling out.\” And how do you categorize Pearl Buck? She wrote one of the most vivid depictions of Chinese life at the turn of the last century ever and was widely dismissed until Oprah rescued her from relative oblivion. And to confuse matters further and drag music into it, where did all those English hippies get off being so good and playing the blues 40 years ago come from? Gatekeepers always incline towards their own comfort zones, and however annoying this might be, I still say it ain\’t prejudice, just driving on cruise control while texting about the lack of diversity. As our old dead and surviving friends The Who used to observe, \”It\’s the singer, not the song, that makes the music move along…\” And shame on you for smoking me out of the shrubbery again.

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