A couple days ago I wrote a post about my reading resolutions for 2010. In it I discussed my goal to read more international science fiction and fantasy, under the guise that intentionally doing so would not be as artificial as seeking out work by people of color. Looking back, I completely disagree with my original statement. But Dave B. from Robot Comics beat me to the punch with the following comment:
I don’t know if “Read more international books” is more or less artificial than “Read more books by PoC.” They’re both seeking out specific types of authors, and nationality and race are by and large the same type of divide when speaking about sectioning people off into “groups”.
Theoretically (though not at all absolutely), reading books by PoC gives you a different SUB-cultural voice/view, where reading international authors gives you a different cultural view/voice. But beyond that prefix, I don’t see any difference in consciously seeking one out or the other. Same with gender.
It’s good to keep your mind open to all three – keep aware that you WOULD like to read more of all three – but to actively seek it out in numbers will be artificial no matter which of the three you’re talking out. Or so it strikes me.
The first section is absolutely true. The very idea of intentionally seeking out international SF/F makes the actual reading artificial (in the sense that I am no longer reading organically–by how I find the story–but instead by a systemic, probably well-researched, purchasing/selecting method). No matter how I try to spin it, there is no difference between seeking out international SF/F or works by people of color.
And this is where I have such a big problem: the end of Dave’s comment hints to exactly how I read (I am open to all manner of writing by authors of various nationalities, genders, and races, with the exception, obviously, that the work be written or translated into my native and only tongue–English). I generally do not select what I read by any factor other than by what I happen to like (and those likes are changing dramatically these days due to exposure to all kinds of new forms of writing), but at the same time I am always on the look out for new and interesting stories from all over the world and often gravitate towards such things when they are properly advertised as such. Only, that rarely happens (for international SF/F or people of color), and in some cases probably for good reasons. I can see problems with publishers using one’s gender or race as a gimmick for selling one books, which might be why many of them don’t do it (a guess on my part).
So, do I simply take the artificial road and try to find these works where they appear? Is there anything wrong with an artificial method for selecting reading material? Am I reading too much into the notion of “artificial” and, thus, creating doubt within myself about the effectiveness of such a “habit?”
I’d really love opinions on this, folks. While I do not base my reading habits on one’s race, gender, or nationality, I still am very uncomfortable with the gaps in my reading, not because I am guilty of anything, but because I feel like I’m missing something vital.
