A friend, a younger writer, asked my opinion on when one can be allowed, so to speak, to write about a place one was not born in. Here are his questions, and some thoughts of mine on the matter, those of a Bostonian who has lived in rural New Mexico for 25 or so years..
"Can you tell me: When did you feel comfortable writing
about New Mexico? How long do you have to be in a
place to feel right about writing about it? Do the
locals resent you? Did they at first?"
The thing of course is to be honest. Let us always go to unfashionable Hemingway.
It is NOT permissible to write in cliches about "the city different" and "the Land of Enchantment" if you are writing about New Mexico. The horrible ex- Michael Gruber version of "Robert Tanenbaum" in my review section has a lot of that. Clear Light. Native American Shamans. Hot Chiles. Santa Fe (Taos) Style.
It is permissible to write about the real Santa Fe. The best novel I know about it is-- believe it or not-- a sort of vampire novel written by a Santa Fe academic who was born in the deep South and raised as a Baptist--!!--Dreamer by Jack Butler.
(Nobody writes about Albuquerque, an absolutely fascinating town full of Asians of every description, gangs, restaurants, culture, high tech--- I digress).
Nobody owns anywhere. Though "one" should avoid making judgments/ conclusions about a new place-- OBSERVE. ASK. Then go with instinct if you are blessed with such. There is a LOT of horrible shite written about Montana, more than about New Mexico, partly I think because it is easier to go there and hang only with easterners/ coastal people.
To go on with my own experience: that-- to hang out with anyone other than locals-- was not possible for me when I got here, and I am hard on myself. I didn't do much of any NM writing for several years. When I first did, it was attacked all right-- by Easterners! New Mexicans came to my defense, and have ever after. Never heard a negative word from a New Mexican on any of my NM writing.
They like Cormac McCarthy too.
But not that rich sentimental commie John Nichols.
Keep it true, brother.
3 comments:
Doesn't Rudolfo Anaya have a series of detective novels set in Albuquerque? [Google pause] Zia Summer and Rio Grande Fall are two of them.
Lots of us like Cormac McCarthy - and I have to admit I never could finish Nichols' "The Milagro Beanfield War" though I had wads of friends who told me I would never understand New Mexico until I read it.
McCarthy wrote my favorite sentence in English outside of Wm. Faulkner. It's on page 5 of "All the Pretty Horses" and describes the Comanches traveling down the trail that crosses the ranch and begins, "When the wind was in the north you could hear them, the horses and the breath of the horses and the horses'hooves...."
I admit I have a thing for Indians but every time I read that I just say wow. It was depressing to read James Wood slagging on McCarthy's new book in a review in the July 25 New Yorker but I imagine McCarthy is far beyond worrying what reviewers think.
Chas-- will check them out-- despite rumors I have NOT read everything. Mysteries are good too-- I read more "genre" than "literary" these days, because it is, often, better.
Reid-- the Boston Globe review was excellent, though it featured an illustration of horsemen amidst saguaros for a tale of drug killings on the Texas border...
I don't think McCarthy cared about reviewers when he was living in an El Paso motel.
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