Delete comment from: Jennifer Represents...
My favorite topic!
I feel for you, I really do.My novels contain diverse characters (and queer kissing), but, to be blunt, it was quite difficult getting there. And I received no help. None. Because people won't talk the issues in an honest way.
The "problem" with diversity I believe goes much deeper than shallow characterization. Here's what I see:
Books devoid of any descriptor of race/gender/etc, as you noted, on purpose in order to avoid either getting it wrong or trying to appeal to a wide audience.
Books attempting to be diverse but wind up in the cliche category.
Books attempting to highlight "the message" and are preachy.
Books where the author is using a diversity theme where they should be writing diverse values.
Then the hardest one of all, books with diverse characters that seem real, but the characters are devoid of agency and make no attempt to get it.
But those are auxiliary issues. The main cultural issue is the way diversity is discussed, which in general is a mine field of political correctness many try to avoid. It is difficult to have a conversation as any viewpoint that doesn't toe the line is met with immediate shamming. Because the conversation gets shut down, viewpoints (right or wrong) are not examined properly. When discussion is shut down, all those problems I mentioned above are created because looking at diversity in a different direction in order to understand it and write well becomes difficult. The attempts at diversity becomes meh. It's so bad I can spot YA authors who are trying to be diverse but have no frame of reference other than what they read or movies they see. The reality they write to doesn't exist.
I've studied diversity from genetics to memetics and how they both start to interact over periods of time. Yet it is my unfortunate experience I can't talk about diversity with almost anyone, really, except my editor (who is a researcher on par with me) (okay, maybe better than me) (she is super smart).
Thus, sadly, until we can talk about things without people going crazy, I think you will see books with less diverse characters over time.
TL:DR: The subject of diversity, despite the diverse American culture, is too toxic to produce writers who really want to understand it. You're scratching the surface with the literary problems highlighted here.
Oct 4, 2013, 3:29:42 AM
Posted to On Diversity and Character Depth