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rushthatspeaksI don't have much in me but signal-boosting at the moment, but some things people might want to be aware of:
Justine Larbalestier on the whitewashing of the cover of her YA novel Liar. In which a protagonist who self-describes as black with nappy hair is portrayed on the cover as white and straight-haired and looking pretty much like almost every other YA I've seen this year.
The response of the publishing house to hearing that people are upset about the cover, at Publisher's Weekly. And yet, some readers—and Liar’s editor—are defending the cover, noting that Micah, the unreliable narrator, could have fibbed about her own appearance. “The entire premise of this book is about a compulsive liar,” said Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books USA and Walker Books for Young Readers, who worked on Liar. “Of all the things you’re going to choose to believe of her, you’re going to choose to believe she was telling the truth about race?”
No, I'm going to choose to believe that the person who wrote the book is telling the truth about the protagonist's race.
And if I were unaware of the author's views on the subject, and picked up the book off a shelf cold and read it, I would not assume that the cover represented the protagonist, given how she self-describes, even with her compulsive lying. I would assume they had gotten the cover wrong, because Occam's Razor says so.
A wonderful idea: The Open Source Book Re-Covery Project, proposed by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeeandink.
Justine Larbalestier on the whitewashing of the cover of her YA novel Liar. In which a protagonist who self-describes as black with nappy hair is portrayed on the cover as white and straight-haired and looking pretty much like almost every other YA I've seen this year.
The response of the publishing house to hearing that people are upset about the cover, at Publisher's Weekly. And yet, some readers—and Liar’s editor—are defending the cover, noting that Micah, the unreliable narrator, could have fibbed about her own appearance. “The entire premise of this book is about a compulsive liar,” said Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books USA and Walker Books for Young Readers, who worked on Liar. “Of all the things you’re going to choose to believe of her, you’re going to choose to believe she was telling the truth about race?”
No, I'm going to choose to believe that the person who wrote the book is telling the truth about the protagonist's race.
And if I were unaware of the author's views on the subject, and picked up the book off a shelf cold and read it, I would not assume that the cover represented the protagonist, given how she self-describes, even with her compulsive lying. I would assume they had gotten the cover wrong, because Occam's Razor says so.
A wonderful idea: The Open Source Book Re-Covery Project, proposed by
coffeeandink.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 06:44 pm (UTC)Says the person who saw nothing at all wrong with "choosing to believe" she was telling the truth about being a girl, and confirming that to the reader with the cover art.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-31 12:10 am (UTC)