Grace's Mosaic Moments


Sunday, November 29, 2015

PC Gone Amuck - 2

Longwood Bear Update: Wednesday, December 2, 2015:

Below is a link to a video my daughter took this morning. Her husband had just driven the two younger girls to the bus-stop when . . .

Bear on the Porch 





This week's bit of color - my son-in-law shared this post from Mandatory


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Below is a quote from Facebook that "ties" in well 
with a blog on Political Correctness:



(To my foreign readers - please note the punch line is a sound-alike for "tie.")

Grace Note: I re-typed this entire blog to get rid of the gremlin who turned my words into "fine print." Half worked, half did not. So please forgive, get out your magnifying glasses and read the words of two very well-spoken gentlemen. They're well worth squinting a bit.


Political Correctness Gone Amuck

Over the last few weeks I've been accumulating other people's thoughts on the possibility that being "politically correct" has become a bĂȘte noir which, while not as threatening as the fascism of the far right, should still be of concern to all of us. Below are comments from people who, like me, are questioning something we've long advocated: "Political Correctness." Please read these comments with an open mind. 

From an editorial in The Orlando Sentinel (11/28/15) by Victor Davis Hanson, who styles his remarks as "On the right."  Headline:  Campus administrators reaping what they sow


Among Mr. Hanson's points:
Student protests grow more extreme the more they are appeased. "Radical students bully liberal deans, crowd into the offices of college presidents, disrupt students in libraries and shout down public speakers. Mr. Hanson notes that most often the self-appointed activist leaders are among the most wealthy, pointing out that furious protesters who recently rallied against "oppression" at Yale's Silliman College, live in a building with two grand pianos, pool tables, gym, movie theater, indoor basketball court, computer lab, dance studio, four music rooms, a film-editing lab, and an art gallery! Also mentioned is a group at UCLA demanding black-only student housing. Those of us who recall the Civil Rights movement can only boggle at that one. Shades of the Old South! Mr. Hanson's final paragraphs go on to say: "Calls to stop 'cultural appropriation' by prohibiting some groups from enjoying the dress, fashion, music and art of a different ethnicity are nihilistic. Would minority students wish to be denied from appreciating opera, symphony, impressionist art, Platonic dialectic, Shakespearean drama, physics or constitutional government just because these genres were originally created by Europeans?
   "The final irony?
   "For a  half-century, professors have privileged diversity over unity. Faculties focused more on American sins than American virtues. They fixated on the color of our skins rather than the content of our characters. Administrators watered down the curriculum, lowered standards and appeased pampered students.d
   "Now they are reaping the liberal whirlwind that they alone have sown." 

Grace note:  I consider myself a middle-of-the-road liberal and rarely find myself agreeing with anyone editorializing on the "right," but I can't deny Mr. Hanson makes some very valid points. We have raised our children and grandchildren to be so PC, they are in danger of losing all common sense.


Mr. Hanson mentions Yale's Silliman College. Below is a portion of a letter from an outraged Yale alumnus (Steven Kovacs, Yale '68) about the suggestion that Calhoun College be renamed.

   "John C. Calhoun was not only a graduate of Yale, but one of the most distinguished political figures in American history. He was a congressman, senator, secretary of war, secretary of state, and vice president of the United States. He was one of a triumvirate of brilliant political figures, along with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. He advocated states' rights, limited government, and free trade. To reduce him to being the leading champion of slavery is to do him injustice.    So what are we to do with such a historical figure? In fact, what are we to do with any historical figure? Take them out of their historical context? Shall we rename all of our many institutions bearing the names of Washington and Jefferson because they owned slaves?
   Let's stop being so politically correct and so very, very wrong. Let us accept the wide range of humanity and recognize that we are all situated in a particular historical reality.
   I am fervently against renaming Calhoun College. But if, against all good reason and judgment, it is to be renamed, I sincerely hope it will carry the name of Cole Porter, the most brilliant American composer and songwriter of the twentieth century—who also happened to be a Yalie, gay, and disabled, having lost his leg in a riding accident. He's a hell of a lot more exciting than Abraham Pierson [yet another Yale residential college]. And he's politically correct!" 

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I seem to have begun a topic that could go on forever. (I have a whole stack of recent articles I haven't touched yet. The Episcopal priest at Church of the Resurrection in Longwood (FL) even mentioned the problem of not raising our children with strength enough to meet life head on in his sermon this morning.

It is possible that in the long run, Donald Trump's heinous remarks in the current presidential campaign will actually do us all a service. No idea - in this case, sensitivity to other people's feelings - is so precious that it cannot run amuck, exploding into a chimera so distorted of its original purpose that it threatens us all.

We will definitely revisit this concern at a later date.  

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Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.
For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.
 

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Kids & Creative Writing

Grace note: due to a glitch - some nasty little gremlin that turned this week's blog into "fine print" and refused to go away - the Mosaic Moments for the week of November 29 will be posted after a complete re-type. Hopefully, some time Sunday afternoon.


Bear Update.
A block from my daughter's house in Longwood, a bear broke through a neighbor's pool screen, opened a small fridge, and happily chewed & emptied all the soda cans inside. (Maybe more than one bear?) But please note that the bears were either "teetotalers" or recognized that munching beer bottles isn't a good idea. Note that the beer bottles are still neatly laid out, the bear(s) extracting the soda cans without breaking a single one. Very sophisticated bears in Longwood.









 I am postponing the continuation of my comments on Political Correctness until next week in order to write about something very special that happened to me this week. As part of what is called "Dividends" day here in Seminole County, parents and relatives of students were asked to come to school and talk about what they do for a living. My daughter and I were booked together—Susie talking about buying and fixing up dilapidated houses and suggesting ways the children could make money at their age, while I contributed a workshop on Creative Writing. 

I had planned to stick to the school regimen of Non-fiction writing (essays), but in the very first of the three workshops I did, the teacher suggested the students be allowed to write Fiction if they wished. A suggestion I was all too happy to oblige. FYI, Florida is a state that "over-tests" students, which results in teachers being forced to teach to the tests rather than teach the students the things they really believe they should know.

I talked a bit about by my sole book written for Young Adults (and suitable to any age interested in Medieval times) - The Captive Heiress. And then I read them two examples of how a student might answer the question: What did you do yesterday afternoon after school?  The first example was deadly dull, a scant paragraph marked by short sentences beginning with,  "Then I . . . Then I . . ." The second essay, answering the very same question, ran to five full and hopefully colorful paragraphs.

After that, I talked about "why" the second essay was so much better than the first - the details I had added, the more colorful language, the personal viewpoint. I also got in a plug for Fiction - the fun of creating good people, bad people, smart people, stupid people, silly people, etc. And then I asked the students (4th & 5th grade) to write two or three paragraphs, which they would then read aloud.

I gave a list of topics for those who needed it, but added that they could write about anything they wished, Fiction or Non-fiction. The results were astonishing—to the teachers, I'm convinced, as well as to me. Their work was so good—and almost all chose Fiction, something they never get to do in school—that I was truly saddened by not having enough time to hear each child read aloud. It was as if someone had pulled a cork out of a bottle, allowing them to shine. We had nine- and ten-year-olds writing not just narration but DIALOGUE, with "he said" and "she said." And the creativity - oh my! Yes, much of it was Fantasy, but that they could spout it out in 15 minutes with no warning they were going to be asked to do this . . .

Yes, one of the fourth grade classes was for the Gifted, but the other two classes were not. One boy nearly had me in tears as he read about "jays" pecking at a bully. A fifth-grade boy had the class in stitches with a few colorful paragraphs that suggested he was either going to be an author or a stand-up comedian. And a girl in the Gifted class wrote a story so well done that I truly think she may become a successful author.

Let me tell you, I went home glowing. That I had unleashed, however inadvertently, such a torrent of words made my day, my week, my month. Now if only the Florida school system could understand the need for creativity in the classroom instead of sticking to facts and figures in order to answer statewide tests. Sigh . . .!

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 Next week, back to the problem of Political Correctness gone too far.

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.
For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

PC - Have we gone too far?


In light of the horrible news from Paris and the devastating downing of the Russian passenger jet last week, I am pasting below the immortal words of Winston Churchill (posted to Facebook by Carol Cork).

"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs—Victory in spite of all terror—Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."
- Winston Churchill
(May 13, 1940)


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And lest we find our own selves teetering on the edge of extremism, let us consider how easy it is to carry what at first seems right and proper to such an extreme that we  become as nonsensical, as unreasoning and fanatical as those we oppose. The following blog was planned before the terror attacks in Paris and refers to incidents much less dire, but the principle is similar. We all like to think we would never fall into extremism, be it religion, politics, even extreme sports. But it happens. I read an article just the week about the number of people being injured because they pushed their bodies too far. And that is as difficult to understand as why anyone would hate—that should probably be written, HATE—someone because they follow a different religion, a different political philosophy, or just because they are immigrants or refugees looking for a better life. And yet that kind of hatred not only exists, it is becoming more prevalent, more vocal, more violent. To the point the world is reeling, threatening to tumble out of control.

In the midst of all this, we need to look inward and ask ourselves if we too have gone to extremes, allbeit in a much less violent fashion. This is where the topic I'd previously scheduled for this week connects with the recent extremism seen in France and Egypt. Quite simply, extremism in any form - declaring there is only one way to do something, while rejecting every other approach - feeds upon itself, becoming blown out of proportion until what might have been a good idea becomes a be-all and end-all in itself, exaggerated to the point of absurdity, harmful to everyone not belonging to the "inner circle" of believers.

And, yes, this exaggeration can apply to something with such good intentions as "Political Correctness." My question is:  Are we harming ourselves - and more importantly, our children - by being too Politically Correct? 

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows that I am about as far from being a fan of Donald Trump as it is possible to be. And yet he and I may actually agree on one thing: We have carried political correctness to an extreme. I began to suspect this over the last few months, but this week the issue seemed to crop up everywhere I looked. In the Yale Alumni Magazine, on the TV news, in several different articles in the newspaper, and even on this week's episode of Blue Bloods. And I recalled what I'd been told when I visited the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. One of the men who spoke to us said that the FBI was having difficulty finding agents with "street smarts." Potential candidates seemed to have been chained inside with "play dates" as children instead of being out on the steets, learning to interact with other (read "more diverse") kids, and sitting at their keyboards as they grew older, instead of being out and about, discovering the rough and tumble world as it really is. 

These are also the children who grew up in the "PC" era, who learned a well-scrubbed version of "Eeny, meeny, miny moe." Who never sang "Three Blind Mice" or the multitude of glorious music we used to call Negro Spirituals. Children who were taught to avoid the slightest hint of something that might be offensive, thus creating a generation where the slightest thing became offensive.* Creating lily-livered little darlings who cringe over even a hint of something that might offend someone, anyone, anywhere, any time. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! These are the kids whose parents want every team to get a prize, the ones who want to do away with school report cards, etc., etc. This is not only sad, it is damaging. It turns potentially strong kids into overly sensitive whiners. 

*I sympathized with the students at the University of Missouri until I learned the miniscule nature of the slights that began the ruckus. I mean, I remember the time when a governor stood guard at a university door to keep black students out. Now that was truly offensive. I remember those who died in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s. That too was appalling. But a bit of name-calling in a world where some people will always be stupid asses? Aw, come on, kids, that's just plain ridiculous. Suck it up and find better things to do with your life than complain over slights from idiots. In my day we were brought up on "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." (They did, of course, but we got the message. Some people should simply be ignored.)


Enough from me. Below is a Letter to the Editor from this month's Yale Alumni Magazine. (And, no, I did not go to Yale - the magazine is sent to me because my husband was a Yalie. At the time I applied for college, no women were allowed at Yale - revealing in light of recent events that Yalies may be smart but they're not always wise.)

Excerpt from a letter by Steen Kovacs, Yale '68:
Subject: the possible re-naming of Calhoun College (a residential unit at Yale)

"John C. Calhoun was not only a graduate of Yale, but one of the most distinguished political figures in American history. He was a congressman, senator, secretary of war, secretary of state, and vice-president of the United States. He was one of a triumvirate of brilliant political figures, along with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. He advocated states' rights, limited government, and free trade. To reduce him to being the leading champion of slavery is to do him injustice.

"So what are we do to with such a historical figure? In fact, what are we to do with any historical figure? Take them out of their historical context? Shall we rename all of our many institutions bearing the names of Washington and Jefferson because they owned slaves?

Let's stop being so politically correct and so very, very wrong. Let us accept the wide range of humanity and recognize that we are situated in a particular historical reality.

I am fervently against renaming Calhoun College. But if, against all good reason and judgment, it is to be renamed, I sincerely hope it will carry the name of Cole Porter, the most brilliant American composer and songwriter of the twentieth century—who also happened to be a Yalie, gay, and disabled, having lost his leg in a riding accident. He's a hell of a lot more exciting than Abraham Pierson [another Yale college]. And he's politically correct!"

Grace Note:  It's become clear this topic is too long for a single blog. Please join me next week for more comments from people who believe we have carried Politically Correct to an extreme where it is more of a detriment than a boost to living a more equitable life.

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I am thrilled to announce that Rebel Princess, Book One of the Blue Moon Rising series, has been accepted for publication by Kindle Scout. An extra thank-you to the readers of Mosaic Moments who took the time to read the excerpt and nominate RP. Since this is a new Amazon program, I am not certain how long it will be before the book is available, but I will most certainly let everyone know.



MOVIE RECOMMENDATION.
Each week The Orlando Sentinel publishes a list of the latest movies released on DVD - which I tear out and save until I'm making my next Netflix queue. (I've found some amazing movies that away.) Last night it was the Iranian film, About Elly. This would be an outstanding film in any location and any language, but the opportunity to see the many similarities between East-West cultures, as well as the admitted differences, is truly remarkable. The story is simple: three married couples with children (upper middle class, driving good cars) rent a beach house for the weekend, taking along a young couple for whom they are attempting a bit of matchmaking. And then something goes horribly wrong . . . If you can get your hands on this film, it will be well worth the effort. The characterizations alone are worth watching, including those of the children.

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Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.
For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Character Development

Delivering donations to SafeHouse in Altamonte Springs
At their 18th annual Halloween Party the Reale family requested donations for SafeHouse of Seminole, a refuge for victims of domestic violence. Here is a photo of the three grandgirls delivering the donations. (The sunglasses were given to them by SafeHouse.) I donated food but was truly impressed by the wide variety of items contributed by thoughtful partygoers last Friday night.

Weather Report.
In spite of "falling back" to Standard Time, the Orlando area has yet to experience Fall. Our air conditioners remain on, and the temperatures hover 10-12 degrees above normal. This week we experienced our 125th 90° (c. 30+ celsius) day this year. Last night, the Weatherman said he went all the way back to the first records kept in 1892 and could not find any November with three 90° days, let alone three in a row, as we've had this week. Come on, Cold Front, we need you. This is ridiculous!
 



CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Character Development has to rank near the top of the requirements for a good book. This week's Mosaic Moments is going to look at only one small portion: dramatic changes in character. This topic cropped up as I began a final edit on my latest, The Welshman's Bride. From the very beginning, I knew I was dealing with a heroine some readers might not like, but that's just the way she was, and there was little I could do about it. 

What on earth does that mean, you ask? She's my character. I created her. I can do anything I want with her.

Uh-uh. Once she's on the page, she takes on a life of her own. She is what she is, and I have to learn to deal with it, just as my readers do. Okay, maybe some authors are more ruthless or more uncaring. They can cut and chop, revise and polish, until their heroines become Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, and only the hero has naughty moments. Well, sorry, I can't do that. Once I create a character, he or she takes on a life of his/her own. They grab the reins and off they go, revealing the story to me as we go along.

To expand on that, in most Romances it seems as if it's always the hero who needs to improve his character - the old "rake in need of redemption" theme. Heroines are all too often well-mannered, long-suffering, self-sacrificing, kind, generous, thoughtful - name a good character trait, they've got it. Yes, they may be allowed to be funny, on occasion. They can even be klutzes, but always kind-hearted ones. 

In my very first book, The Sometime Bride, the only liberty I took with that concept was creating an unusually young heroine. And though the passing of eight years during the course of the book adds more wisdom, her character doesn't truly become independent until late in the book when she discovers how horribly she has been betrayed by the man she's loved since she was fourteen. Thus setting up a situation where the "hero" has an enormous amount of groveling to do before the book can have its HEA. My second heroine, in Tarleton's Wife, is strong from beginning to end. Again, it is the hero who must change his attitude. Another example: Jack, an important secondary character in Tarleton's Wife, also had to change his stripes before his HEA. In fact, he had to wait almost as long in real time for a happy ending as he does in fiction, not getting the girl until the last book in the series, written almost twenty years after the first. The Regency Warrior series, in order: The Sometime Bride, Tarleton's Wife, O'Rourke's Heiress, and Rogue's Destiny (on the back burner for years as "Jack's book").

But when I wrote those books, I was still using the conventional thinking of women displaying their basically "good" personas, while the men had some "improving" to do. And then one day, I sat down to write a contemporary Romantic Suspense set in Florida. In Shadowed Paradise, I drew from my own experience of moving from Connecticut to the Gulf Coast of Florida. And suddenly I had an upper middle class New Englander attempting to deal with a world almost beyond her comprehension. A character who had to push beyond personal tragedy while learning to cope with a new culture and new kinds of personalities, even to the point of having to protect herself and her son from a serial killer. Here, at last, was a heroine whose character was forced to become stronger as the book progressed.

I expanded on this in The Art of Evil, a mystery set at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. The heroine is physically damaged, wallowing in grief for a lost love. She's cranky, listless, coming back to life only enough to volunteer as a tram driver on sixty-plus acres of a waterfront art gallery, circus museum, and mansion. Only the sudden arrival of a mystery man in her life begins the process of bringing her back to life. (And yes, I had agents, editors, and reviewers say they didn't like her character. Well, really, was she supposed to be cheerful about losing her fiancé and nearly ending up permanently crippled?)

So for a while - without conscious thought about it - I went back to writing heroines who seldom put a foot wrong. (It's all those other people who cause the trouble.) But in my fourth Regency Gothic, I wanted a different kind of heroine. One not so noble or self-sacrificing. One who doesn't turn the other cheek. A spoiled, head-strong beauty who has a fit when her husband does her wrong. This then is the heroine of The Welshman's Bride, and I suspect there will certainly be readers who don't like her. ("But she isn't supposed to be that way!") Only time will tell. I'm looking forward to finding out if my atypical heroine has reader-appeal.

While on the subject of change, I should add that in most mysteries with a female protagonist, the old rules apply. The heroines maintain their characters, even as their Significant Others fall by the way side. The females are inevitably nosy, perspicacious, courageous (sometimes unwisely), steadfast, sometimes funny, frequently threatened, and inevitably smarter than law enforcement. There are always dead bodies, multiple clues, etc., but to keep readers guessing from book to book, almost all have serious ups and downs in their romantic relationships. 

You write mysteries with a male protagonist? You might ask yourself the same question: Should my hero grow and change over the course of the book? Or the course of the series? Because in Mystery, I've noted, this seldom happens. As with female heroines, the main character remains stalwart, while all the changes occur in the people around him or her.

Summary:
As you write, beware of keeping your protagonist's character static. If you feel your genre demands it, then so be it. But surely having your main characters become wiser and stronger, or possibly suffer a severe slump, can only add an extra dimension to your book. Ladies, don't give all the faults to the men. Men, don't be tempted to blame the sins of the world on women. (As did so many Medieval monks!) Balance the books - add a few faults here and there to your oh-so-perfect Main Character. Okay, we may get shot down for it, but surely the more piquant sauce is better than the bland?



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Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.
For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.