A Storyteller's Opinion

In response to other writers’ comments on Dee White’s blog, this was my second lengthy comment.

I’m not sure it’s all that hard for an author to stand his or her ground on matters of content alterations. It may be, I haven’t had the luxury of being in that position, dare I say, yet. I can imagine how challenging it would be to withstand the enthusiasm of an agent or publisher waving a cheque (or potential cheque) before me. But I like to believe I would retain my faith, blind though it may be.

Sally, the comment I referred to about US publishers not wanting to publish Australian work first, was on your own blog. If I misrepresented it, I’m sorry. In terms of mass markets, I agree US publishers are unlikely to want to publish Australian stories that have not first been published in Australia. But, I also believe (following a meeting in San Fransisco last year) that the tide may be turning. I am assured that there is growing interest in things Australian throughout cultural US consumers. This may have positive outcomes for Australian writers as US publishers search for different solutions to economic challenges. We can hope.

I teach storycraft to Upper primary and Middle School children. Each of my students writes a story for publication, we edit and publish them in anthologies. I am insistent that my young authors write stories that evoke Australian character. The following is a section from my introduction of our most recent series…

“…Our young authors are challenged to create a story that is a good read. They must engage the minds of readers who may range from younger than ten years to, perhaps, fourteen or fifteen and older. These storytellers often have to think beyond their own age, and construct images of character and place that lie outside of their personal experiences.

One of the biggest challenges lies in finding stories that can come from some sort of home-grown sense of place. Although avid readers of books, and watchers of televised and filmed stories, they are overwhelmed by imported stories set in far-away places, and of creatures that have only ever existed in the legends and mythology of other lands. It’s a sad reality that, with very few notable exceptions, Australian children’s publishing is far from an exciting intellectual challenge for either reader or, it seems, writer.

It is my opinion that the essence of a good read comes from the writer being able to impart a sense of a place he or she knows very well, and inhabit it with a motivated character we can all recognise through some strain of familiarity. I strongly advise all Born Storytellers to look in their own backyards, search their closets for skeletons, and excavate their findings with the same care and precision as an archaeologist unearthing a hitherto undiscovered relic.”

Born Storytellers is a serious program that makes a serious difference to young people’s writing. Once they get their heads around the idea that they can find as much magic and adventure in Australian context as they can writing about the same things from borrowed contexts of other lands, they rise to challenge. But they do have to be shown how it’s possible. The point here, is that we have to find the strength within to resist cultural bastardisation at all levels, because if we don’t, we will wind up with none.

I’m not convinced Kate Grenville’s comment about “…never being published overseas…” is necessarily accurate. She may not have been at that moment, but she can see no farther into the future than can the Productivity Commission see book prices coming down. I can’t see Secret River being anywhere nearly as engaging if it were re-positioned into US geography, culture or language. I don’t think you need to first be intimately familiar with Australian culture or idiom to be affected by the power of its story.

John Cleese managed to resist the reformatting of Fawlty Towers, and huge American audiences are the better for it. I’d be curious to know if Peter Carey’s work is Americanised in US publications. If so, how would Thief, or My Life as Fake actually work? Thief is so international in its staging, but so colloquial in its delivery.

Sometimes it takes perseverance for what you believe in. And I for one will persevere.