I am reading "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini. I decided on a whim to buy it in the airport since my flight was delayed by over an hour. I didn't read it on the plane at all (was catching up on sleep), and only started reading it in the airport after I arrived.
It's a good book.
It's amazing how universal certain things are -- the immigrant experience, diaspora, a country having a dominant culture and subordinate (and therefore oppressed) culture. I confess I am pretty ignorant when it comes to any culture, even my own, so I found the story told from an Afghani point of view was fascinating. I had never heard of a Hazara until I started reading this novel.
I also noticed some uncanny similarities between the protagonist's father and my own Yellow father. Are all dads from the Asian continent all the same?!
Anyhow, like I said, it's a good book. And the title, very apt.
3 comments:
Been reading your blog for a while now; enjoy your writing.
Just wanted to say about The Kite Runner, though, that it made me uncomfortable, to say the least.
I got the sense that Hosseini was creating/selling Afghani exotique. Also, given the history of Hazara oppression in that region, it bothered me that Hazaras are introduced to a foreign audience in such a sanitized manner: Hosseini's Hazara protagonist is loyal and self-sacrificing to an extreme. I'd imagine a marginalized people would harbor some resentment that might complicate their interactions even with someone who is a benevolent master. But the author doesn't really deal with any agency, any anger, any resistance from any Hazara.
Is it his responsibility as a fiction writer to be historically and sociologically accurate and representative? Yes. Especially in the current geo-pol. scenario (which, acc. to cynical me, has a lot to do with the attention his book got). Anyways, being neither a good social scientist nor a good fiction writer myself, I don't know how one can produce a work that doesn't shortchange fact and fiction... But I think it needs to be done.
Hossein's a lazy or irresponsible writer. His trope of 'there is a way to become good again' would be so much more moving, and so much much much more hard work if he didn't wash over Hazara oppression the way he has.
But that's the end of my rant.
You raise some interesting points, Anonymous.
As I mentioned before, I confess I am completely ignorant about the cultures discussed in the book. And maybe that's just it. I am the target audience for the book: A completely ignorant American who has no inkling of any culture outside of her own. For the average American, that's Jerry Springer and Lindsay Lohan. Being the cynic I am, I suspect that Mr. Hosseini's editors/publishers were looking to target the culturally vapid American public. This motive perhaps necessarily excludes historical or cultural accuracy. Perhaps it's just more sensational to portray one ethnic group (i.e. the Hazaras) as beautiful and exotic and oppressed, even if it is wrong.
Other examples in other arts:
In film, it's more 'entertaining' to watch yellow foreigners fight with kung fu.
In music, it's more 'entertaining' to listen to black rappers wax eloquent in ebonics about doing time and garnering street cred.
Perhaps, like the movies Americans watch and the music they listen to, the "ethnic" fiction that gets published and sells the most is the one that romanticizes and exoticizes a stereotype. The fact is that publishers and authors who want to be published aren't incentivized to be morally responsible. They're incentivized to make a sale to the largest audience.
I have a feeling though that Hosseini's original manuscript was much longer, and his editors probably made him change a few things around. But I hear ya. Moral irresponsibility is seldom justified by the desire to make a buck.
The other problem is when one tackles 'authenticity' --- what is 'real' Hazara culture, for e.g. Any representation will be partial and subjective... so whose representation should matter more? A 'real' Hazara? Man? Woman? Upper class? Diasporic? A scholar? A social worker who has lived and worked among Hazaras? Mindboggling and often unproductive identity politics.
Which are only further complicated when one talks (as one should) in terms of whiteness and racial politics. [Aaarrgh!]
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