Yeah, but as fandom fails (and RL) has shown me, "liberal" doesn't always translate into rl. And there's the thing ppl have pointed out where sometimes thinking of yourself as liberal can even make you even more resistant to admitting you have some probs. I'm not saying I'm above it (I can think of 2 instances off the top of my head where I was a moron in the last year, besides being judge-y as hell, and I don't think anyone has perfect empathy), but... yeah. "Liberal"
Like, if you explicitly intend to validate a specific alienated group with your literature, do you also alienate another group, and is that to be expected?
I'm actually not sure about this. But let's say that it does alienate--what does that mean that life is like for the alienated group when they deal with the majority of media? I mean if this were just a social reading group I'd be more with you in giving a pass. Or even a lit course.
But these are people who want to *teach.* And kids. (And people wanting to teach YA who can't connect with fantasy? With all the history of YA fantasy? Please tell me these are like, idk future chem teachers or something.) Unless they can fake it like anything...? And idk, it's hard for me to imagine people who can't connect with a book being a+ at connecting with a similar thing in RL. This is me and my relation to books, though, so I suppose it's possible. But the idea of people who can't connect with books wanting to be *teachers* just makes me go "bwah?" I mean, I'm sure they can be awesome and cool at many things, but it seems like they lack a crucial skill for the job they want to do.
I mean, I think it's fine to be uncomfortable, or even not like a story. I'm with you there. Especially if it's making you realize how sheltered you've been, or about people with a mindset you just don't like or aren't comfortable with or familiar with. That's like, the growing learning process, which can hurt. But if you want to be a teacher, I think you should try extra hard to step outside yourself and find some connections.
Or possibly it's just not a good book. lol.
But the way you put it, it made it seem like ppl are just rejecting it out of hand because it's different and hard. And not even really trying to see how it could be a book that speaks to some people and why.
But hm. This is a brilliant argument for literature not existing in a vacuum. Which is my total hobbyhorse so :) Everything is context. Maybe these people need more context? It seems like you definitely think your prev knowledge helped you out. idk
And yeah, I have no idea if connecting with certain stories means anything for real life. Just the way they reacted seems like a red flag for me. More about tendencies I guess?
As for tutoring, I can see being a good writer as only helping. I mean, maybe it's not the most important thing, but all things being equal. Also (tendencies again), a good writer is likely to have other skills that will help tutoring. Like tech knowledge as you say. Writing is also very often a very concentrated way of thinking, and being thoughtful is handy and likely to have given you other skills. But yeah, there are also all types of writing (sonnets vs instruction manuals) and all diff types of subjects... and then all different types of students who need different things to learn. And I'm sure many good writers aren't empathetic at all. Or good teachers.
no subject
Like, if you explicitly intend to validate a specific alienated group with your literature, do you also alienate another group, and is that to be expected?
I'm actually not sure about this. But let's say that it does alienate--what does that mean that life is like for the alienated group when they deal with the majority of media? I mean if this were just a social reading group I'd be more with you in giving a pass. Or even a lit course.
But these are people who want to *teach.* And kids. (And people wanting to teach YA who can't connect with fantasy? With all the history of YA fantasy? Please tell me these are like, idk future chem teachers or something.) Unless they can fake it like anything...? And idk, it's hard for me to imagine people who can't connect with a book being a+ at connecting with a similar thing in RL. This is me and my relation to books, though, so I suppose it's possible. But the idea of people who can't connect with books wanting to be *teachers* just makes me go "bwah?" I mean, I'm sure they can be awesome and cool at many things, but it seems like they lack a crucial skill for the job they want to do.
I mean, I think it's fine to be uncomfortable, or even not like a story. I'm with you there. Especially if it's making you realize how sheltered you've been, or about people with a mindset you just don't like or aren't comfortable with or familiar with. That's like, the growing learning process, which can hurt. But if you want to be a teacher, I think you should try extra hard to step outside yourself and find some connections.
Or possibly it's just not a good book. lol.
But the way you put it, it made it seem like ppl are just rejecting it out of hand because it's different and hard. And not even really trying to see how it could be a book that speaks to some people and why.
But hm. This is a brilliant argument for literature not existing in a vacuum. Which is my total hobbyhorse so :) Everything is context. Maybe these people need more context? It seems like you definitely think your prev knowledge helped you out. idk
And yeah, I have no idea if connecting with certain stories means anything for real life. Just the way they reacted seems like a red flag for me. More about tendencies I guess?
As for tutoring, I can see being a good writer as only helping. I mean, maybe it's not the most important thing, but all things being equal. Also (tendencies again), a good writer is likely to have other skills that will help tutoring. Like tech knowledge as you say. Writing is also very often a very concentrated way of thinking, and being thoughtful is handy and likely to have given you other skills. But yeah, there are also all types of writing (sonnets vs instruction manuals) and all diff types of subjects... and then all different types of students who need different things to learn. And I'm sure many good writers aren't empathetic at all. Or good teachers.
lol I've lost the thread of my thoughts a bit