(I'll get back to the enneagram in a minute, I just wanted to interrupt myself for a bit.)
One thing I discovered recently is that I know absolutely nothing about the lives of the very wealthy. By wealthy, I mean the sorts of people who appear on the Forbes list of billionaires. I've never paid much attention to it before, because I always thought it was filled with celebrities and Silicon Valley types. But recently I binged Bling Empire on Netflix and was...shocked. Have you ever even thought about a $4000 handbag? or a necklace that is a literal million dollars? Um, I haven't. But believe it or not, there are people out there who are "nothing special," i.e. not celebrities and not tech geniuses, who throw around that kind of money. (If you're American, you might be more interested in the Forbes list of richest Americans, as I was.) These are regular people who just happen to have that kind of money, and they live in a way that I could not have made up.
As writers of fiction, we are responsible for the image we are creating for the reader. And now I will never again assume that I know anything about the super-rich, because watching that series convinced me that even my imagination is not enough when it comes to how those people live. I don't know if even doing research would have been enough. I almost think that you need to live it (or on the edges of it) to really "get it."
I know I'm not qualified to write about Olympic snowboarders or even college fraternities, for example, because those are way out of my experience. I have no clue what a day in the life of a snowboarder or a frat boy looks like. But I think I imagined that the ultra-wealthy were just people with lots of money and that this could be imagined. And I'm now realizing that the money actually shapes people at that level, something I'd never contemplated.
If you're already an unusual sort of person (the aforementioned celebrity or tech genius) then I can already imagine that you're a little "different" to start. I just never realized that you can just be a kid whose parents inherit a few shopping malls in China, and grow up with a completely different way of living, even though you yourself are really just a regular person. That was definitely an eye-opener for me.
Does that mean only the very rich can write fiction about the very rich? That doesn't seem right, does it. I've read books written by men who are writing about women, for example. It depends, is the universal answer to the question.
And yet, I've often squirmed when I've read books written by someone who hasn't been in the shoes of the protagonist. For example, Memoirs of a Geisha was horrible for me to read. I surprised myself with my violent reaction, to be honest. And I made myself watch the movie, but I regretted it immensely. That particular man shouldn't have written that particular book, was my conclusion. It felt fetish-y and othering, to use words that are common in Asian circles. It feels like someone is staring hard at you and taking notes.
My first attempt at fiction, decades ago, featured an Egyptian protagonist. I'm really glad that one never got published, because today I think I would similarly feel like it was borderline fetish-y and othering. I didn't mean any harm by it, so I understand that the intention is not the same as the result, necessarily. Does that mean I can never have an Egyptian protagonist in my books? I think that's up for debate, but I have to land on the side of asking myself why my own experience and voice needs that particular character in order to be heard. It's just a series of hard conversations and delicate questions. They need to be asked.
So at the end of the day, I'm going to stick to people and predicaments that feel familiar to me. And if I read a billionaire romance, I'm going to be a tough critic for sure.
I know I'm not qualified to write about Olympic snowboarders or even college fraternities, for example, because those are way out of my experience. I have no clue what a day in the life of a snowboarder or a frat boy looks like. But I think I imagined that the ultra-wealthy were just people with lots of money and that this could be imagined. And I'm now realizing that the money actually shapes people at that level, something I'd never contemplated.
If you're already an unusual sort of person (the aforementioned celebrity or tech genius) then I can already imagine that you're a little "different" to start. I just never realized that you can just be a kid whose parents inherit a few shopping malls in China, and grow up with a completely different way of living, even though you yourself are really just a regular person. That was definitely an eye-opener for me.
Does that mean only the very rich can write fiction about the very rich? That doesn't seem right, does it. I've read books written by men who are writing about women, for example. It depends, is the universal answer to the question.
And yet, I've often squirmed when I've read books written by someone who hasn't been in the shoes of the protagonist. For example, Memoirs of a Geisha was horrible for me to read. I surprised myself with my violent reaction, to be honest. And I made myself watch the movie, but I regretted it immensely. That particular man shouldn't have written that particular book, was my conclusion. It felt fetish-y and othering, to use words that are common in Asian circles. It feels like someone is staring hard at you and taking notes.
My first attempt at fiction, decades ago, featured an Egyptian protagonist. I'm really glad that one never got published, because today I think I would similarly feel like it was borderline fetish-y and othering. I didn't mean any harm by it, so I understand that the intention is not the same as the result, necessarily. Does that mean I can never have an Egyptian protagonist in my books? I think that's up for debate, but I have to land on the side of asking myself why my own experience and voice needs that particular character in order to be heard. It's just a series of hard conversations and delicate questions. They need to be asked.
So at the end of the day, I'm going to stick to people and predicaments that feel familiar to me. And if I read a billionaire romance, I'm going to be a tough critic for sure.