Yatterings

I went to PicoCon yesterday (con report coming later) and a couple of the talks covered the notion of difference. Farah, one of the Guests of Honour, mentioned receivng an article for the journal Foundation and, when making suggestions for further reading to improve the article’s argument, being told “I don’t read books by men”.

This reminded me of the introduction to the new collection of Kipling’s short stories, The Mark of the Beast and other Fantastical Tales, by Neil Gaiman. In it he relates a story from the early Sandman days where he said in an interview that he enjoyed Rudyard Kipling’s stories and received a fan letter asking how he could read a “generally evil person”, which made it obvious that the letter writers had never read Kipling and had probably been told not to.

Literature, certainly anything from the fantastical genres, should open the reader’s mind to different experiences. The reader doesn’t have to agree with the politics of the author, in fact they can violently disagree with them, but the reader should at least be open to the discussion. Barring different voices and not being curious as to even try reading the Other is positively insane to my mind; it invalidates any argument held because there is no discourse only parroting.

I’ve dipped in and out of Kipling for a variety of reasons. His politics are not mine but they are not as simple as is often made out - they rely upon context. His control of prose and narrative are superb, delivering neatly packaged short stories in a variety of voices, from the arch Gothic to the Barrack Room soldier and even the Indian fables. Whilst I do not agree with the colonial or jingoistic tones, I can enjoy a master story teller when I read one.

To ignore a piece of art just because it doesn’t fit into whatever politics you may have is agreeing the thoughtcrime of not continually pushing your own boundaries. If it inspires you to engage with it and either agree or disagree or to experience something then the work has done its job.

technorati tags:rudyardkipling, neilgaiman, postcolonialism, fantasy, horror, literature, books