Below is a copy/paste link to an address given by Lionel Shriver at a recent Writers Festival in Australia and to my New York 〒imes Pick comment in support of her “cultural appropriation” Views
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/books/lionel-shriver-cultural-appropriation-brisbane-writers-festival.html?_r=0
David Harrington Campbell
Hillcrest, CA
September 14, 2016
Without Tennessee Williams, we would have no Maggie the Cat, no Blanche DuBois, no Amanda or Laura Wingfield, no Alexandra Del Lago. Kudos to Ms. Shriver for speaking her mind in this ever compartmentalized culture of ours. The old adage of “write what you know” has been robbed of its original meaning: yes, “write what you know,” but that does not mean write about yourself and your friends and pets and writing room, or there would be no literature of merit. “Write what you know” means write what you understand yourself to be in other people, what you understand yourself to be in other cultures, in other circumstances, just as Mr. Williams did, just as Ms. Shriver does.
Let us not nitpick ourselves out of the existence of art. After all, Van Gogh was not a flower nor did Tom Robbins have an oversized thumb (I haven’t examined his thumbs in person, I’m guessing on this one).
Cultures must encourage artists, not peck them to death.