Look, I love writeblr, but one of these days, I think we all should have a nice talk about being aware and respectful not only of other cultures but also of their literature. Because. It works like this, talking from my (Brazilian) point of view: we aren’t illiterate. We write about ourselves, and our literary tradition is as rich as any other.
And you can’t get through a literature degree in Brazil without hearing about how. People. Keep. “Borrowing”. From. It. All. The. Time.
Like, do you know Rebecca probably plagiarized a Brazilian novel called A Sucessora, by Carolina Nabuco? Its author was offered money to keep quiet about the similarities in the plot.
And do you know The Life of Pi was based on the book Max e os Felinos, by a Jewish Brazilian author, Moacyr Scliar?
But have you ever read A Sucessora when you were praising Rebecca as a great feminist novel? Did Max e os Felinos get a movie? Is your literature worthless unless someone else writes the same idea in another language and turns it into a bestseller?
Interacting with another country’s literature should be an act of love. You shouldn’t erase the works that inspired you, so no one gets to know the author and/or culture it comes from. Build a bridge instead, show your readers a piece of another country, or invite us over for a visit. If it was so good you wanted to use it as inspo, it’s good enough to be seen by others besides yourself.
So this is where I get to magical realism again. Because, in my experience, it hurts when people pick a piece of your literature but don’t care enough about your culture to even interact with it when they borrow.
Magical realism isn’t a genre like mystery, or horror, or historical fiction. Magical realism developed into what it is because of Latin American authors; it’s part of our literary tradition. It has its own characteristics, and it’s deeply tied in with Latin American cultures. You need to know those to write it. You can’t write something using the mold of European/US fantasy (even if it’s contemporary or literary) and call it magical realism.
Do you understand how close that is to cultural appropriation?
In my opinion, nobody should be blamed for something they didn’t know, and everyone has the right to experiment with new things, even if they have no idea of what they’re doing. I mean, do I know what I’m doing in an early draft? Never.
But don’t you do at least a little research if you’re a white person writing a Black character? Can you write a mystery novel without having ever ever read a mystery book? No, because you’ll fumble it horrifically.
So I’m just saying, literature is also culture, and if you don’t want to fumble a genre horrifically, you should read it before you try to write it.
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