Dude. I agree with your positions*, and after I finish this comment I'm going to go make them in my own comment/response to other people's comments. But your assumption that this is a post about eredien's "anxieties," rather than an honest request for opinions and advice, is insulting. eredien knows perfectly well that there are people on her flist, like you and me and raxvulpine and a number of others who are likely to show up soon, who think a lot about race, class, culture and imperialism. I believe that when she asked for other opinions (e.g. "If anyone has any suggestions, I would like to hear them," "I feel that Paley's trying to incorporate what research she did into the work. Can someone show me why Zooeylive, or others, might think that she's not?"), she meant it.

Maybe I'm making assumptions-- maybe you and she have the kind of relationship where you jump on each other's logic all the time and it's fine, and if so, my apologies. But otherwise... it would have killed you to just answer her questions?

--R



*with the exception of So "understanding" requires appropriation?. Because frankly, yes-- when a writer wants to really understand something, anything, she writes about it. That's how writers understand the world. That doesn't mean she doesn't have an obligation to do so in a respectful way, but still-- you're never going to get the same level of understanding of something until you've written it and gotten guts-deep. One can argue that white/Western writers don't have the right to that kind of understanding of colonized cultures, but that's a different argument.