I mentioned a fraud Native American novel previously during class, that was nominated for a variety of literary awards. I have now found the Time article regarding how an actual Native American writer feels about this fake autobiography: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1154221,00.html

Perhaps I feel that this is such a personal issue since throughout my entire life, I've been bombarded with various Asian actors being used to represent any Asian role in American cinema and TV. Whether it's Zhang ZiYi and Gong Li speaking their painfully Chinese-accented Japanese and English while playing the leads of Memoirs of a Geisha, or James Kyson Lee speaking his poor Japanese in the popular TV show, Heroes, what it comes down to is simply an insult to those whom are from that background and speak the language. Not only is it heavily inaccurate, the message people are left with is that as long as Americans can't tell the difference, it doesn't matter which Asian or Asian American is used to tell the story. They're all the same.

In that aspect, I'm somewhat happy that novels are taken on a more critical level regarding authenticity. Though you can't hear the wrong accents that you do in film or TV, there's definitely an innate accent in terms of how the story is told. Without authenticity, the story is fake and insulting to those whom actually experienced it. As stated by Alexie in the Time article, the fake writer has never experienced the real suffering, the real injustices committed against the real people. Without having personally experienced such a traumatic event, one can only imagine based upon what they know. Can imagination then be treated on par with another's account of true suffering? I couldn't possibly imagine someone attempting to claim to have written an autobiography of being a Holocaust surviver and never having stepped foot out of America. Apart from how insulting that is to real survivors, the experience just can't be truthfully conveyed and it's doubtful anyone would take it seriously. Just because Equiano's text is older, I don't see why the same standards shouldn't be held.


-Kathy