Reading out of character
Recently a brouhaha erupted around the Internets about Science Fiction needing more minority writers and better handling of minority characters by all writers.
I completely agree with this stance. Readers want to read stories written about characters they can identify with. Readers want to see themselves as the heroes of the stories. We should have more stories to satisfy this demand.
However, looking at this from another angle; recently Nancy Kress had a post with bits of trivia on YA reading habits that she had learned at a con. One of those bits of trivia was that apparently boys still do not read books with girl protagonists.
This lead me to wonder if we should expect readers to want to read stories about people that are different from them? Most readers read genre fiction for entertainment, for escapism, and for the pleasure of it. Reading in a genre you enjoy is comfort reading.
You snuggle into the book and forget everything else. You’re not taking notes. You’re not stopping to analyze how the character is like you or different from you. You are simply reading and enjoying. (Unless your a writer, but that’s a different issue.)
Reading out of character is a different type of reading, even within a genre you are normally comfortable with. You are thinking more about the story and the characters and spending less time just experiencing the story. And the farther a character is outside your comfort zone the more time you have to take to understand that character.
The other side of this is that as an amateur writer, I don’t know the number of times I’ve read the advice to not do anything that would snap your reader out of the story. Do it too many times and you will lose your reader. For most readers I think it not only takes one hell of a story, but also one hell of a storyteller to make it worth the journey.
Before anyone declares that I’m calling for or condoning some “ism” in reading (racism, sexism, Martianism, take your pick), I’m not. I believe mature readers should read out of character. And I believe that minority readers probably mature faster as readers because they are so often forced to read out of character.
Yes, it would be wonderful if more readers, including myself, read out of character more often and more widely. But, I think the reader has to be ready for it and they have to find the right book to propel them along.
And, whether it’s today or a thousand years from now I suspect teenage boys will never want to read books with girl protagonists. Just sayin’.
What’re your thoughts?
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One of my middle two boy’s (ages 7 and 5) favorite series are the Fancy Nancy books. They are about the most frou frou books I’ve seen, but I think they are fascinated because the premise of the book is that Nancy is fancy in everything including vocabulary and they love learning the new words.
I do think it’s the job of parents and schools to make sure young readers get plenty of opportunity to stretch their mind muscles and read from different points of view. Not just for the sake of making sure there is a market for all sorts of fiction, but because I think being able to recognize and acknowledge that there is more than one way to look at a situation, that can be influenced by having different experiences such as sex, religion or race, is a huge part of being a mature adult.
On the other hand, I get very impatient with people who are reading snobs. If a book entertains and provides a few hours escape and relaxation, that’s wonderful. It doesn’t have to do anything else.
Hey Tracy, thanks for stopping by.
I’m glad your boys are an exception to the rule. And it sounds as though the author as done a good job at writing her protagonist so that a wider audience can relate to her.
I also agree parents and teachers should do everything they can to influence kids to read more widely. Though, I worry that if they force them to read stories they don’t enjoy the kids are going to rebel against reading for pleasure in general.
While I can’t find the actual statistic at the moment, I remember reading recently that a very small percentage of college graduates continue to read after college.
Which gets us back around to the authors and the publishing houses having the responsibility to produce more great stories that will entice kids, and adults, to read beyond what they are comfortable with.
As for the literati, they annoy the crap out of me. If it weren’t for comic books and Science Fiction and Fantasy I would never have learned to read for pleasure.