Brief 22 – Due 23/02 at 09:59:59am GMT
So maybe it’s time to be a bit controversial (we haven’t had any controversial challenge this year, have we?!)… so for this year’s controv top let’s look at Cultural Appropriation!
A heated and very current topic, but it does raise a few interesting questions – for example, at what point does inspiration become appropriation? And shouldn’t we as artists we be excited to learn about other cultures and from this melt pot that is our brain to create something new, or are we treading on dangerous waters by even subconsciously immersing ourselves in other cultures.
You may have heard about the controversial speech that Lionel Shriver made about cultural appropriation, asking whether writers shouldn’t be allowed to write from other perspectives that are not theirs culturally. And without ruffling any feathers (remember, I’m only asking questions, not giving any answers) where is the boundary? Should a white man be allowed to write from a black woman’s perspective? Should a gay woman be allowed to write from a trans’ perspective? Should a German writer be allowed to write from a Polish perspective? Or should we only write from our own limited experiences in life?
Perhaps the solution to this quandary is something completely different. Is writing truthfully and honestly becoming too crippling now? Maybe the way out of this minefield is by going away from the limited mind, the limited human experience, and taking art into new realms? (but that might be a brief of its own)
I don’t know… over to you!
OK… let’s give some bonus points…
Writing for an audience?! Who cares about an audience!
After all, “if we build it – they will come!” Surely!
The hell with an audience… I want to write for me! And sorry for calling you Shirley.
Which brings me to an interesting question in itself… should we write what an audience wants or what we think they want? And who are we to say what we think they want anyway? Or maybe that’s the whole point? Or is there even a point? Should there be a point? I’m getting lost…
OK, so we said “to hell with the audience” but how do we tohellalise them? That’s what you need to do for the bonus point! Not many of those left, so get ’em while they’re still hot – the more you tohellalise the more bonus points you can claim!