New Saturdays @ the South: An unqualified source promoting diversity in books

The latest Saturdays @ the South post has arrived here: http://www.peabodylibrary.org/freeforall/?p=2254.

I'm probably not the best person to be extolling the virtues of diversity in literature. My bookcase and favorite books are overwhelmingly white, but there's a part of me that believes that I shouldn't have to "seek out" diverse literature, that literature should be diverse enough that people can make choices based on what speaks to them. That's my fantasy, anyway. I know that's not a realistic view and it saddens me that it's not.

I included the Guardian article because I felt that it provided the most balanced approach to the argument that she started. There is a part of me that understands her point. That literature shouldn't have to have an agenda. That writers should tell the stories they feel they need to write without filling a gap somewhere in the whole of the universe. But, like my candy-coated vision for literature, her's isn't any more realistic. Literature has long since been art and served an agenda and it hasn't suffered for it. What I took offense with in her comments (and what I think started people off) is her implication that "hundreds, thousands" of books from the perspective of queer black boys is somehow enough, or a reason against people asking for more. This is a narrow-minded, knee-jerk reaction to a slight upset in the status-quo and for her to wonder why people got so upset I think is a privileged position to have. To be able to write whatever you want and have people be willing to publish and share it is a luxury (one that even I, who am not well-acquainted with that struggle, can notice). Sometimes the need to write comes from not being able to find the right voice in a book that's already been written.

As I said in my original post, we all need to have voices, faces, struggles in literature that we recognize. They give us the tools to help us get through our own lives. To imply that might be enough of one type of voice is insensitive. We all deserve to have as much support out there as we can find, regardless of who we are, what we came from, or where or alleged "agenda" might lie. Diverse books are essential; there can never be too many different voices out there.