Write or Wrong?

Unit: Professional Writing and Presentation 212 - Fakes, Frauds and Fictions
Journal for Week 4 - Helen Demidenko and The Hand That Signed the Paper

Ah, Demidenko and The Hand That Signed The Paper. I mentioned it to my family and got a rather mixed response. But that aside.

The Demidenko case brought up some interesting points about what is right and wrong in the writing field. For a start, you do begin to wonder how a book is judged in competitions – was she awarded the prize because the narrative was felt to be a “true story?” (although listed as fiction) I myself know that as a writer of fantasy, I generally submit work knowing that it will certainly not be the winner of any prize, because fantasy seems to create a disdain amongst “real writers.” But to judge a book on the popularity of the genre seems absolutely insane, especially when the actual quality of the writings submitted is ignored.

One of the arguments that arose in my household concerned what exactly “Demidenko” did wrong through her impersonation of an ethnicity not her own. I can understand how the material of her book could be quite damaging to an ethnic group whose viewpoints are not the same as hers. But at the same time, plenty of authors adopt a pen-name for the same reason – to become someone they're not. I use one because I often don't feel comfortable attaching my name to some of the subject matter in my poems. What does that make me?

However, I, and all the writers I've spoken to, disagree with the notion that fiction authors have an obligation to provide a moral core to their work. Very simply, that's just another form of censorship and cultural conditioning. That aside, the adult readers should be able to think things out for themselves and make their own moral decisions concerning the story they have read. So here, I do not believe that Demidenko has done the wrong thing by writing from a point of view that personally justifies the character's personal involvement in the holocaust.

Reading
Demidenko, Helen. The Hand That Signed The Paper. Allen and Unwin: NSW. 1994. 1-22, 86-93.