Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hail, Dame Rowling!


You have gotten a lazy, unengaged generation of kids READING. Intricate plots, vivid and developmed characters, universal themes and conflicts...even vocabulary words. Once you were on welfare, writing these story longhand as you sat in a pub, depressed and wondering of the future. Such a story in itself. Hail...


Maybe we in African American community can take heart. We have folks coming close, in sci fi and fantasy. We have folks like LA Banks or David Anthony Durham. But many people don't care about them, or seem to have no time for such creativity and wonder. Fairy tales of thugs in love and thongs on fire are passing for fiction these days, and our young people suffer. At least...once they overcome the stigma of "reading too much" or acting "white" or spending $27.50 on a hardcover and not toward a pair of shoes or Young Jeezy CD or bootleg "Assasin's Creed" for X-box...they have you, Dame Rowling, and your young wizard who's now enshrined with Raskolnikov, Oliver Twist, Janey, Emma, Tom Jode, the old Cuban fisherman, Bigger Thomas and so many many more...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't have said it better myself. My 11 year old daughter is an avid reader, I told her that I was unable to get the Harry Potter book for her, so she's alittle upset. What she doesn't know is that I already have it and will present it to her on her birthday Wednesday.

Snowman said...

Ditto well said. She has truly re-ignited a candle which i thought had burned out.

As for African American readers and writers, I'm not qualified to say, but the thought is that if a small group of both can remain inspired, they can light the way for everyone, including the most ignorant and self-destructive. Even Malcolm X learned to better himself in prison through the power of books.

Anonymous said...

Question: Since LA Banks works are really entrepreneurial endeavors pursued to generate income not so much because of love of genre, wouldn't that put those works in the same boat as "ghetto fairy tales" written for profit?

David Anthony Durham said...

Christopher,

Hey, man, thanks for the mention.

And, by the way, I stop in here every now and then. Always good fun when I do.

Best,

David.

Christopher Chambers said...

I disagree re: LA Banks. Is she Tolkien on the one hand, or Clive Barker on the other? No. Is she on par with Stephen King? Yes. Has she succeeded in doing what few writers have pulled off in my lifetime at least (including Rowling)...e.g. created a unique mythology? Hell yes. The "ghetto" slant of some of her characters might be a gimmick to ensnare the sistagurls out their...but I'd rather see the hook baited with ghettofab worms so someone will bite on a new universe, rather than the same ole same ole soap opera novels, thug odes and church lady wet dreams.

Christopher Chambers said...

David--I should interview you. Will check back ASAP

Anonymous said...

Don't bust on Assassin's Creed. It's going to be BIG. But I do see your point...

BronzeBuckaroo said...

This is why I have become a fan of your blog.