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A review by books_with_mana
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses
5.0
I've been waiting for "Craft in the Real World" by Matthew Salesses my whole life.
Salesses calls out white supremacy and colonization in literature and literary spaces. He explains how craft elements are designed to explore the white Western experience by prioritizing an individual's growth with a singular aspiration in a world that functions with the fundamental understanding of Christianity, Western mythos, Greek philosophies, a specific scientific lens, and a linear way of experiencing time. Anything that defies these literary expectations are deemed "experimental," "magical realism," or "nonlinear." Even in liberal, creative spaces, nonwhite methodologies are othered and brushed off as too complicated for a general audience.
Salesses implores readers, writers, and professors to notice their literary biases. Look at who these book centers and who these books don't. What is the author/characters' world view? How do they experience reality? Who are their influences? Is the writer a student of Edward Said or James A. Michener? One denounces and deconstructs colonialism while the other romanticizes and profits off my grandparents watching their community murdered and experimented on by Japanese and American occupiers.
Growing up in the U.S. taught by women and relatively liberal instructors, I was told to identify with the white women in Western Literature. I didn't. Instead, I was more interested in their help. After all, they look more like my family. Besides, I've spent my time cleaning rich white women's stools, wiping the spray tan off their maroon walls, and been a human punching bag when they take out their frustrations on a service worker. I never see myself in literature, TV, or movies. I still don't. That's why I write.
Everyone needs to read this book. We all have our biases, cultural traditions, and occupy slightly different realities. We need to acknowledge that and open ourselves up to different realities.
Salesses calls out white supremacy and colonization in literature and literary spaces. He explains how craft elements are designed to explore the white Western experience by prioritizing an individual's growth with a singular aspiration in a world that functions with the fundamental understanding of Christianity, Western mythos, Greek philosophies, a specific scientific lens, and a linear way of experiencing time. Anything that defies these literary expectations are deemed "experimental," "magical realism," or "nonlinear." Even in liberal, creative spaces, nonwhite methodologies are othered and brushed off as too complicated for a general audience.
Salesses implores readers, writers, and professors to notice their literary biases. Look at who these book centers and who these books don't. What is the author/characters' world view? How do they experience reality? Who are their influences? Is the writer a student of Edward Said or James A. Michener? One denounces and deconstructs colonialism while the other romanticizes and profits off my grandparents watching their community murdered and experimented on by Japanese and American occupiers.
Growing up in the U.S. taught by women and relatively liberal instructors, I was told to identify with the white women in Western Literature. I didn't. Instead, I was more interested in their help. After all, they look more like my family. Besides, I've spent my time cleaning rich white women's stools, wiping the spray tan off their maroon walls, and been a human punching bag when they take out their frustrations on a service worker. I never see myself in literature, TV, or movies. I still don't. That's why I write.
Everyone needs to read this book. We all have our biases, cultural traditions, and occupy slightly different realities. We need to acknowledge that and open ourselves up to different realities.