Have you been reading more now that you have to stay at home because of Covid-19? I always loved reading and I have recently increased my reading consumption. I have been discovering and observing and even analysing what I read. There are three benefits in particular that I am gaining from reading.
Hearing the voice
The most entertaining and enjoyable benefit of reading more is the exposure to the styles of writing whether in short stories or novels especially where authors can so accurately capture the voice of the protagonist. By voice I mean the colloquialisms, the speech mannerisms and the vocabulary of a character. When the writer captures these characteristics effectively, realistically and effortlessly you are captive to the story. One of the best examples of this I found in Tim Winton’s The Shepherd Hut in which you can hear the young boy’s very accent and dialect.
Eliza Robertson in We Walked on Water brings her teenage protagonist’s voice through markers or references such as food and games.
“ I wanted Dairy Queen. A Butterfinger Blizzard layered twice with hot fudge”
She also uses the preoccupations and predilections of the current youths. In reference to his sister the young protagonist says, “I remember her in screenshots”. This could only have come from the generation that lives its world on screens.
I gravitate towards such writing. The joy of reading such works is to find yourself knowing this character and being immersed in his actions and thoughts because he or she is what exists in the real world.
Discovering the marginalised
What I also observed is that more writers are choosing to tell stories about people on the margins. Some writers are pushing to include or to tell stories of those who are usually unheard. You can now read stories from the perspective of the transgender person. You can find one such story, The Bump written by Morgan Thomas and published in the June 2021 issue of The Atlantic.
The transgender protagonist in that story thinks that his desire to be pregnant would be considered an “immoderate desire”. Although we might expect a male who has become a transgender female to want female clothes and perhaps a female body, this desire to experience pregnancy is unexpected. But should it be?
These stories give you a view into the lives of transgender persons revealing their goals, their desires and their challenges. You can through these stories form an understanding of how transgender persons navigate relationships, whether family, work or dating.
Hearing the other side
The loneliness of a refugee who cannot fit into the culture of the country to which she has moved is told in Edge Of The World. Surprisingly and interestingly it is told from the perspective of a child’s memory. Though it is an adult remembering it is her childhood memory that she recounts. This story shows that writers are giving a voice to those who don’t often speak perhaps because they are afraid and probably because they do not have the language as is often the case of a refugee coming to a new country. Writers are telling us that there is a story of the refugee beyond the escape from conflict or from poverty. I think the writers are brave to reveal these feelings.
I learnt that there are many sides to the story of those who have found refuge in another country. The story Spires byTamas Dobazy taught me not to judge the success of a refugee by my standards. This story reveals that refugees have to use so much of their courage to escape and save their lives. Reaching another country where they are safe is an accomplishment. To struggle again beyond that to learn new things in order to succeed may not be their desire, or at least it may be difficult. Mixed with the relief of successful escape is also the guilt of leaving others behind. Looking on from outside we may not understand this. Stories like Spires give us another side to the newcomer’s actions. Through the telling of these stories we reach more understanding and sympathy for the refugee. There is more to Spires of course, but I’m just choosing one cautionary lesson of listening and looking for the complexity which often guides the actions of others.
I still have more to explore among the books and stories. I will revisit the fantasy worlds and dystopia as well as get my eyes on graphic novels.