blog Reaching Beyond the Common Narrative

[A. E. Lowan]

A. E. Lowan submitted a new blog post:

Reaching Beyond the Common Narrative
by A. E. Lowan

What is the common narrative?

The common narrative is the system of default characters and stories that a society tells. If you look at the preponderance of stories in a culture, you will usually find strong patterns about who is written about—whose stories are considered important enough to tell. In the western world, our common narrative tends to default towards telling stories about characters that represent people who are straight, white, cis-gender, and male. They also tend to be able bodied and able minded.

Why Is a Common Narrative an Issue?

The problem with having the vast majority of stories in a culture being about one group of people is that society is not homogenous. Societies are composed of many different groups of people. Each society has groups with differences based in gender, ethnicity, sexuality, health, age, social status, wealth, access to opportunity, education, and religion—culture is a kaleidoscope of people with different experiences and stories to tell. When a common narrative focuses tightly on one type of character and their experiences, this only reflects a small percentage of the population that consumes media. It leads to an imbalance in perceptions about the importance of the focus group.

A study has shown that when children watch television programs featuring the types of characters that are default in the western common narrative, most...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

My world changed when I realized that, even though many people entertain the opposite idea, the real world is full of diversity and the only place composed of only straight, white, able-bodied people is a deliberate fiction. People are disparaged for being "SJW's" and for "pandering" when they include characters outside this very narrow formula, but the only thing that should be considered a political statement is omitting non-white-straight-and-able-bodied people. The rest is just real life. Like, leave your house occasionally, dude. Or just stop being a racist...

I must say that ive noticed a trend of having a straight, white, non-disabled hero accompanied by "diverse" companions. All the time. Never the hero, just the companions, fall outside the formula. Also I can't think of any characters that are, say, both black AND disabled. They are only allowed one (1) difference from the formula. That's just what i've noticed.

(Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is pretty good, especially as Riordan books go, but it's guilty of both of the above things.)

Also a lot of books have Muslim women but I can't think of a single one with a Muslim guy. I guess it's because the hijab is easy to mention in conversation? Also no other religions are commonly mentioned. Jewish characters on occasion, but I can't think of books that have, say, Buddhist or Pagan characters. It would be nice to get any explicit discussion of religion at all. Just have characters discussing their beliefs.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Also a lot of books have Muslim women but I can't think of a single one with a Muslim guy. I guess it's because the hijab is easy to mention in conversation? Also no other religions are commonly mentioned. Jewish characters on occasion, but I can't think of books that have, say, Buddhist or Pagan characters. It would be nice to get any explicit discussion of religion at all. Just have characters discussing their beliefs.

One of the nice things about this so-called trend in challenging to common narrative is that we get some real gems. For example, Saladin Ahmed's Muslim/Middle Eastern-based fantasy, Throne of the Crescent Moon garnered a great deal of attention a few years ago. https://www.amazon.com/Throne-Crescent-Moon-Kingdoms-Book-ebook/dp/B0064VQDHI/ And Unremarkable, by Geoff Habiger and Coy Kissee, is a great urban fantasy set in 1920's Chicago with a Jewish protagonist.

The thing is that, gems aside, what we need are many, many more. So many that the common narrative itself changes, and we can all see ourselves as heroes.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Thank you for your thoughts! Writing to one's personal experiences is understandable... and easy. But easy isn't why we are here, is it? We're here to write stories that excite, to write stories that challenge. To write the stories that don't often get to be told because the prevailing narrative reflects a Western culture that doesn't exist. Within a few more decades, the U.S. will be more brown than white, and those stories deserve to be told. Already, our urban environments reflect this demographic shift.