Do I feel Social Responsibility?

So, do I feel any kind of social responsibility when I write an Asian American detective?  I thought I would.  But I don’t.

Don’t get me wrong.  I started writing little detective vignettes—short episodes—because there were few Asian American detectives.  Those vignettes were just for me. And when I had enough of them, I realized they could be for the rest of the world.  So I definitely started out with a vague sense of social responsibility:  There were no Vietnamese American detectives (mine’s hapa:  half-and-half).  What was out there that treated Asian Americans felt a little too stereotypical.  And I aimed to correct that.

There was a social project, too.  I wanted to represent my part of LA—the landscapes that a real insider knows.  Not just Malibu or Hollywood.  But Silverlake and Downtown.  Not just the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Polo Lounge.  But the Gaylord and the Bounty.  I wanted my Vietnamese American detective to own a piece of that landscape.  To claim it.

The Beverly Hills Hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel

But detective fiction is also politically incorrect.  My serial killer is a vicious and depraved woman-killer.  My characters work in fashion:  they’re monsters in pretty masks.  My detective is an uncensored deliveryman who has seen the ugly underbelly of the fashion industry: sweatshops, human trafficking, wage slavery.  Need I say more?

I had this awesome grey-haired Creative Writing instructor in college.   He often gave this advice to students who go to class with stories that all were about heavy social issues and big, brainy ideas:  David would say, “your only responsibility should be to the story.”  When I started teaching Creative Writing, I gave that same advice and passed it off as my own.

I try to follow my own advice.  I want to tell a good yarn.

 

 

2 thoughts on “Do I feel Social Responsibility?

  1. it’s true. the only loyalty a writer should feel is to her story. not family, not place of birth, not lovers. that’s why writing is so unforgiving at times. you have to be cruel to do it right. (and why i took a break from it.)

    • Ain’t that the truth. There is something innately cruel to good writing: maiming, hurting, damaging–these are all things that must be done to your characters if you want them to be interesting! But I think you’re an innately cruel person: come back to writing!

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