Originally posted November 4, 2007
I keep coming up against this brick wall as an editor. I run smack into it every time, although many people don’t seem to be stymied by it at all, they just plow on through. When I read a submission based on a Native American myth or legend, I have some very complicated feelings. I’m excited because I want to include stories that come from myths other than European, Judeo-Christian backgrounds, but to tell you the truth, I probably wouldn’t know if the myth was genuine if it bit me on the arse. Does it matter? Aren’t we writing fiction here? As writers, are we responsible to cultures other than our own? Do we have a right to play around with stories that don’t belong to us? I’m talking about authenticity and appropriation, as well as how we define myth.
There seems to be a double standard. Maybe even a triple standard. Is it okay to write fiction about Native American myth (especially if you’re not Native American)? That’s my wall. I find myself wondering is the author is “really” an Indian, because I don’t want to publish something by an Anglo evoking an “Indian” style or tone – that just feels wrong to me. On the other hand, I don’t worry about the authenticity of stories based in European folklore. I don’t know, or care, whether the author is really of Celtic descent – the field is wide open for interpretation and inventiveness.
I grew up in a culturally diverse state, which perhaps makes me sensitive to the romanticism of the Southwest and of Indians in particular. When I read something that seems like a white person trying to sound “spiritual” and “Native,” I get a little uneasy. I could be wrong. Perhaps the person writing is the genuine article and it’s my understanding that is incorrect and biased. Whew! Getting into some murky water, here. I think the best thing for me to do is stick with the writing. Does it move me? Turn me on? That’s what makes a story valid, right? Or, am I just trying to squirm out of some difficult questions?
– Leslie
COMMENTS
Editor
Sari Krosinsky lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her partner and two cats.
She received a B.A. in religious studies and a M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Her poems have appeared in Poesia, Pebble Lake Review, The American Poetry Journal, Arsenic Lobster, Verse Daily, and others. Fiction Editor
Leslie Fox lived in Central America during her formative years and in New Mexico since the mid-70s – before it was cool.
She writes novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and creative nonfiction. Some of her short fiction has appeared in The Medical Muse, red. a journal of arts, Earth’s Daughters and Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection. She has a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico.Art Editor
Dianne Schlies is a practicing artist and has taught studio art since 1986. She received her M.F.A. from SMU at Dallas, Texas in 1990. She has studied or worked with David Bates, Mel Bochner, Squeak Carnwath, Harmony Hammond, Ed Harris, Joyce Kozloff, Mary Ellen Mark, Duane Michals and Robert Rauschenberg. Schlies presently teaches Drawing and 2-D Design in Albuquerque, New Mexico.