As writers, should we work with the door open or shut? On Friday, Sheena Wilkinson’s beautiful ABBA piece crystalized a lot of what’s been on my mind recently into this one practical and philosophical question.
Here’s the link to her article for those who missed it. Thank you, Sheena, for the inspiration.
http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2021/08/blurring-boundaries-by-sheena-wilkinson.html
So. Door open or shut?
Years ago, I listened to Hilary Mantel describing how she leaves her (childless) home to work in a little place she and her husband bought for that purpose, and how, when there, she could dwell in the 1530s in peace, communing with Thomas Cromwell and other Tudor ghosts.
Since Budleigh Salterton, where she lives, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, let’s transform the Mantel writing room into a bothy beside a windswept sea, down a rough track, not far from a lonely inn. Or a wooden hut by the palm-fringed Indian Ocean. Or a cosy Bloomsbury apartment.
Would we swap our own creative spaces for a promise of productive solitude? Or, to put it another way, would we want to be alone with our stories?
My writing desk is currently an old dining table by the living room window, with the dog scrabbling at the carpet behind me and my OH reading in an armchair. Do I ever dream of not being a wife and mother in exchange for creative freedom?
Not in a million years! (Though maybe for a fortnight, if the dog came, too, and yes, the damn cat. And beloved OH. And our son is always welcome, and his partner...)
At heart, then, it’s a solid yes to domestic interruptions – real life, if you like – and an open door.
But what about the bigger doors, doors onto the news of a burning planet and the horrors of Afghanistan, and a Plymouth man shooting dead his mum and four others, and authors at war with each other on Twitter? Can we work with those doors open too?
I think we must, however tough.
[The next bit is what I think I’ve been sidling up to saying, not wanting to say it straight off because there has been so much grief and anger about racism and sexism in our industry this week.]
Personally, and for what it’s worth, I firmly believe that as writers we must engage fully with the debate about our right to write about the ‘other’, and to learn why our words might be the wrong words and our stories offensive.
To do that, we need to be open to the news today and also conscious of history. We need to know about geopolitics, power and clashing cultures. Persecution, loss, oppression, colonialism and its aftermath concern each of us, of every race, gender, class or creed, whether we want to face uncomfortable facts or not.
For instance...
Last year was the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth, Devon, to what, for the English passengers, was the New World and what, for the people who lived there, was their own sacred land and home for thousands of years.
Belatedly, I went to an exhibition about it in Plymouth last week, and read for the first time the words of Frank James, a leader of the Wampanoag people who lived in what became New England after the white colonists settled there.
Fifty years ago, Mr James' prepared speech marking the Mayflower’s voyage was suppressed because the white people celebrating the 350th anniversary didn’t want to hear what he had to tell them.
Now, it may well be that many people reading this post know all about it, and somehow I missed out on an entire episode of well-known and important recent history. Certainly, having studied international relations just a decade after this speech was made, I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t heard about Frank James at all,
In case, like me, you hadn’t heard about him either, or the Native American National Day of Mourning these events inspired, here is his speech in full, as far as I can tell, as it seemed disrespectful to edit it down:
“I speak to you as a man -- a Wampanoag Man. I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry, my accomplishments won by a strict parental direction ("You must succeed - your face is a different color in this small Cape Cod community!"). I am a product of poverty and discrimination from these two social and economic diseases.
“I, and my brothers and sisters, have painfully overcome, and to some extent we have earned the respect of our community. We are Indians first - but we are termed "good citizens." Sometimes we are arrogant but only because society has pressured us to be so.
“It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you - celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection.
“It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. Even before the Pilgrims landed it was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them as slaves for 220 shillings apiece. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod for four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors and stolen their corn and beans.
“Mourt's Relation describes a searching party of sixteen men. Mourt goes on to say that this party took as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoag, knew these facts, yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers of the Plymouth Plantation. Perhaps he did this because his Tribe had been depleted by an epidemic. Or his knowledge of the harsh oncoming winter was the reason for his peaceful acceptance of these acts. This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”
Here’s a link to the British side of the 400th anniversary commemorations if you’re interested:
https://www.mayflower400uk.org/
Here is a link to their page about Frank James and the National Day of Mourning:
https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/native-america/2020/november/frank-james-and-the-history-of-the-national-day-of-mourning/
All the very best.
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5 comments:
Thank you for this. I think it is very wise and helpful. Thank you for sharing that speech too. We do have to keep the doors open and not refuse to learn history which has previously not been known to us,, or refuse to be reminded of history we do know but prefer to forget - we need to know and accept the truth in order to go forward. I feel like a lot of doors have to open, and some v difficult things will emerge, but we will ultimately all be the better for it.
Thank you, Anne. I think you are so right. There is a lot more to know but we must.
Thank you for posting this. Grim reading. The damage that colonialism has done is shameful and unending.
Excellent post, Rowena. I have been to the Plimouth (US spelling!) Plantation in the US, but although it was fascinating, there was no mention there of the displacement of the indigenous population! Strange, that! Thank you for telling the other side of the story.
Thank you, Amanda & Lynne. There is always so much more to know, isn't there?
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