Writing as an Edge Species

Chapter 10 of the Theory Toolbox begins by asking does the race, gender, ethnicity, class, or sexual preference of a cultural producer like an author, a filmmaker, or an artist, or that of the reader as subject, make any difference in the interpretation of mass media, history, or literature? Do the categories of sexual, racial, economic, and ethnic difference make a difference in our reading and writing of the world? Can a straight white male banker from London even read or understand the poems of a poor lesbian from Haiti? Is any identification possible from such disparate subject positions? These are all very good questions that lead me to wonder if it is possible for an outsider to write as if they are on the inside, or to write about characters who are in the inside, and avoid scrutiny for doing so, for "pretending" to have that knowledge. How can someone from the outside ever write with the knowledge from someone on the inside, and if they do are they judging, misinterpreting, or using this as a strategy for their own means?

Binyavanga Wainaina's How to Write about Africa would seem to answer yes. This article tells you exactly how not to write about Africa by exaggerating, or maybe not really exaggerating but just exposing, how people do take advantage of writing about Africa: "Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can’t live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshiped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed." This leaves me with the impression that maybe the only people that can acceptably write about Africa, whether about the good or the bad, are people from the inside: people who have been born there, grew up there, and lived there their whole lives. This also brings me back to earlier topics of whether the author matters or if the text is the most important thing to look at when interpreting and examining writing. I personally thought that the reader, the author, and the text matter. So does this mean that I could never write about a different culture even if I studied it because I am an outsider? And does this depend on if I am writing fictional or nonfictional stories? Does Wainaina only mean fictional stories when she talks about how outsiders use common themes of Africa to portray one certain image, or is nonfiction included in this also?


I went to a conference on undergraduate research this week and one of the keynote speakers was Anne Fadiman. She spent 8 years researching and writing a book called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures. This book chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in Merced, California. Lia Lee, the youngest daughter, is diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Through miscommunications about medical dosages and parental refusal to give certain medicines due to mistrust and misunderstandings, and the inability of the doctors to have more empathy toward the traditional Hmong lifestyle or try to learn more about the Hmong culture, Lia's condition worsens and she becomes brain dead. In the Hmong religious belief of shamanistic animism, epileptic attacks are perceived as evidence of the epileptic's ability to enter and journey momentarily into the spirit realm. This ability is often considered an honorable condition and many Hmong shamans are epileptics and teachers. The book discusses broader themes of Hmong culture, customs, and history; American involvement in and responsibility for the war in Laos; and the many problems of immigration, especially assimilation and discrimination. While particularly sympathetic to the Hmong, Fadiman presents the situation from the perspectives of both the doctors and the family, whom she spent much time with over the course of her 8 years of research. And in the end, Anne says that Lia did grow up to be a teacher. She taught Anne and changed her life, and at that university she was teaching all of us.

So is this similar to How to write about Africa or is it different? I was happy when Anne actually addressed this during her speech. She says that the essence of research is finding out something you don't know, but you shouldn't pretend as if you are writing from the inside. Anne is white, mid-upper class New Yorker writing about a Hmong family in California and obviously vying for the side of the Hmong and the need for intercultural competency skills in the medical field. She says that men can write about women, blacks about whites, straights about gays...etc and vice versa because people always have the right to research (and I believe she is only discussing research and nonfiction here, fictional portrayals from the outside may be viewed differently without research, I really don't know?)

And Anne never states this as a requirement to writing from the outside, but she does explain how being an edge species has helped her in her research. An edge species (i.e. skunk) is one that lives on the edge or border of two very different environments. She thinks that being looking from the edge has given her a better understanding and view than she would have had being at the center of any one culture. But even so, 1/3 of Anne's emails are negative and criticize her for writing about the Hmong, part of her story being from their perspective, because they want the Hmong people to be able to write their own story.

She left us with some advice when encountering people whose backgrounds are different from your own: Do not retreat into the safe comfort of your own culture when you are stressed. See things from the other point of view and see people as individuals and not only members of a culture. Accept that you have your own culture with baggage. Try to find things in common.

So, for those of you who will comment on my post, please tell me if you think Anne is doing just what How to write about Africa teaches not to do, or if there is a way to write about a culture from the outside?