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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Looking at difference, embracing diversity

11/12/2015

13 Comments

 
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As I rarely, if ever, watch sport, I was surprised how involved I got in the London Olympics. How could I not be moved by such a display of determination and athleticism? But it was the Paralympics I enjoyed the most (despite the slightly inferior TV coverage). Alongside the awe at the athletes’ prowess, were the stories, implicit or explicit, of adversity overcome. On top of that, the games afforded a rare opportunity to look properly at disabled bodies and, with the somewhat complex rating system, to be curious about them without fear of causing offence.

Difference unsettles us. It makes us anxious, and anxious about our anxiety, triggering an urge to defend ourselves from the discomfort that can lead to blame, disparagement and dislike. But it doesn’t always affect us in this way. Difference can be exciting, opening up possibilities of new ways of being. Yet it can be hard to reach that point in which we can embrace difference as a positive, without tolerating an initial reaction that might be anything but. Sometimes, we’re so afraid of having the “wrong” feelings that we leap straight to a false acceptance, a denial of difference in which only other people are deemed to have prejudices, never us.

What we need, when confronted by difference, is a safe place in which to be curious, and non-judgemental, about both that difference and our own raw reactions to it. How can we find that space without offending those who arouse our curiosity with our open-mouthed stares or, as
Sacha Black has found, really dumb questions. TV and the Internet provide a place to look at, and reflect on, the diversity of human beings but, of course, I think fiction is the best place of all.

Fiction enables us to get inside the minds of people who are different to us, perhaps people who, in real life, we might avoid.
A recent report from The Reading Agency states that, although the volume of research is limited, reading for pleasure enhances empathy, knowledge of other cultures, relatedness and community cohesion. Some interesting research in social psychology might explain this effect. Although not a study of reading per se, Richard Crisp and Rhiannon Turner have found that imagined contact can improve attitudes towards diverse groups.

These things matter, not only in our immediate communities, but on the grander scale of national and international politics. No wonder then,
as Caroline Lodge tells us on Bookword, the author Yann Martel was moved to send a book almost every fortnight over nearly four years to the Prime Minister of this country.

As readers, we expose ourselves to diversity each time we pick up a novel. But we can make an extra effort by reading
authors in translation, taking part in diverse December celebrating BME authors or reading books with LGBT characters. As writers, we can endeavour to reflect the diversity of our communities in our fiction, and my post on Words with Jam has some suggestions on how we can do this from the outside in.

On the subject of guest posts,
I’ve had another dozen since the official Sugar and Snails blog tour came to an end, including one on the dos and don’ts of the promotional blog tour. The two most recent are on Putting the Personal into Fiction… And Taking It out Again under the shelter of Sherri Matthews’s summerhouse and Three novelistic approaches to mental health issues that won’t set your teeth on edge on another aspect of diversity that impacts on more of us than we like to think.

But that’s not the reason I’m posting on this topic today. The credit or blame must go to Charli Mills, who has blogged this week on nosiness, along with the anxieties about blogging about her own culture, finishing with an invitation
to write a 99-word story about a looky-loo – not a term with which I’m familiar, but I think this morality tale captures the essence of why it’s important to be free to look:
Curiosity killed the cat, but we were kids, not cats. Our mothers told us not to stare, so we snatched glances from between our fingers and shivered at the sight. Was she a witch with those long fingernails and wild hair? We couldn’t ask our teachers, because then they’d know we’d been looking and looking was Wrong.

We dared each other to ring the doorbell and watched safe behind the garden wall, when she emerged, snarling like a dog. We threw stones at her window until they took her away in an ambulance, ending our game with a thump.

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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
13 Comments
Geoff link
11/12/2015 11:23:03 pm

First a great flash that rings true of my youth, I'm says to admit. No understanding of difference. And yes I think I agree that fiction is a great way to explore it in both ourselves as much as our characters. And reading about it, yes that's eye opening too. Reading Alan Hollinghurst in the 80s with his exposition of certain elements of gay society helped me understand a little in ways no amount I'd documentaries or serous writing could have done.

Reply
Annecdotist
12/12/2015 03:38:27 pm

Thanks, Geoff, I think fiction works so well because for a while we are in that character's head, yet we can still retreat safely to our own position if it gets uncomfortable.

Reply
Charli Mills
11/12/2015 11:48:40 pm

The anxiety seems to be churning in my country as we point out differences and take defense. Yet, we do need to take a closer look to overcome that anxiety. Thank you for your introspection and links on this topic. Your flash is certainly an apt demonstration of children wanting a looky-loo at the strange inhabitant in their midst. Sad, though. I hope she gets the attention she needs. Seems she might have been ignored for quite a while.

Reply
Annecdotist
12/12/2015 03:43:30 pm

Thanks, Charli, I think it's quite difficult topic – I did a course on psychoanalytic thinking about difference, so these aren't my original ideas, and I still find it difficult to be open to my own prejudices.
Funny about the flash, I didn't think about what would happen to the woman next, I was still wrapped up in the children, and what would happen to their guilt – not sure they'd learn from it unless they had someone like Norah as their teacher!

Reply
Charli Mills
12/12/2015 09:00:25 pm

And we never stop needing someone like Norah to be our teacher!

Norah Colvin link
13/12/2015 02:03:25 pm

Oh you are both very kind. I'm not sure if I would live up to your expectations on this one.

Annecdotist
14/12/2015 12:06:19 pm

If you didn't, you'd get pretty close, Norah, and I for one would be grateful for you at least trying!

Sacha Black
12/12/2015 08:41:38 pm

Lovely, if a little brutal flash. But that is the brutal reality of our societies lack of understanding of difference. It saddens me, but it is a truth we have to accept.

Thank you for the mention <3

Reply
Annecdotist
14/12/2015 12:13:42 pm

You're welcome, Sacha, I don't get across to your blog as often as I'd like so I was pleased to be able to reference you twice!
For me, understanding that lack of understanding stemming from fear is more optimistic as there is potential for us all to change. Although there's still an awful lot of prejudice around, I think attitudes to difference have improved within my own lifetime, which feels encouraging to me. However, unfortunately a lot of political rhetoric reinforces our fears, pitting disadvantaged groups against each other rather than pulling together.
And I have just requested a review copy of a psychology book by Richard Crisp who I mentioned in this post, about how diversity is good for our minds. I'm quite excited to read it, though I doubt politicians will take any notice.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
13/12/2015 02:16:41 pm

This is a great post talking about difference and diversity, Anne. I agree with you about the need to watch. It can feel a little like voyeurism, but how can we appreciate what someone else is going through, how can we empathise, if we have no understanding. Turning a blind eye is as discriminatory as staring, as appears to be what Charli is saying in her comment.
I listened to an amazing audiobook a year or two ago. It may even have been my first. It was called "A life without limits" by Nick Vujicic http://www.amazon.com/Life-Without-Limits-Inspiration-Ridiculously/dp/0307589749 who was born without arms and legs. If one ever felt disadvantaged by a lack of ability to do anything, this would be the story to prove how easy most have it.
Your flash captures the curiosity of children, of all of us. The need to know is very strong. Unfortunately the attitude of not telling, not explaining, contributes to learning, falsely, that there is something to be feared and perhaps despised in difference. I think open, honest, explanations and communication is the best way to overcome those anxieties and misunderstandings.
You have provided, as always, lots of links in this post. I am too far behind in my reading and it is too far into the early morning for me to read any more tonight. Hopefully I'll get a chance to come back and follow a few for more reading pleasure.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/12/2015 12:23:41 pm

A lot of the thinking behind this post comes from my studies of psychoanalysis, but I've also been influenced by all your blog posts about encouraging curiosity to help children to learn. The memoir you refer to sounds really interesting – I have a slight problem with any kind of implication however slight that it is the responsibility of people who are disabled, or otherwise different, to explain themselves to the rest. Which is probably one of the many reasons I prefer fiction, then somebody else can tell that person's story. But great that he was generous enough to share his. It reminds me of an exhibition on bodies I saw a couple of years ago at the Wellcome Institute, showing young children in a similar position without arms and legs as a result of thalidomide just getting on with things in a most beautiful way. And how sad it was that the prostheses that had been used to try and make them look normal actually handicapped them.
Don't worry about following the links – though they are interesting! – it just so happened that I was inspired (and competing to be first) to post my flash at a time when I had two guest posts elsewhere on consecutive days AND I wanted to try and get through a backlog of reviews before the end of the year! But I'd assume the post on novels are mental health would be less interesting to you as it's repeating (hopefully without plagiarising myself) stuff from reviews I have already posted here.

Reply
Sarah link
13/12/2015 04:04:11 pm

As always, I'm late to the party so will echo all the others' comments. Great flash (though...eek!). And great post. As a side note, I love your title "embracing diversity" instead of the usual "tolerating". It has such a negative connotation. I might write about that. Tolerating something makes me think of a 2-yr-old's temper tantrum. Something, as parents, we must tolerate. Tolerate, but not like.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/12/2015 12:39:48 pm

Ha, I think our attitude to difference is exactly like a temper tantrum, Sarah – we're unsettled and want to lash out. But, as I said to Sacha, I hope to bring a book here soon about how diversity is actually good for our minds.
And you're not late, and if you were, you'd be very welcome and I'd honoured to keep the party going for you.

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